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DANIEL BOONE 

Wilderness Scout 



BOOKS BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE 



THE CLAIM JUMPERS 

THE WESTERNERS 

THE BLAZED TRAIL 

ARIZONA NIGHTS 

BLAZED TRAIL STORIES 

THE CABIN 

CAMP AND TRAIL 

conjuror's HOUSE 

THE FOREST 

THE SIGN AT SIX 

THE RULES OF THE GAME 

THE GRAY DAWN 

THE RIVERMAN 

THE SILENT PLACES 

THE ADVENTURES OF BOBBY ORDE 



THE MOUNTAINS 

THE PASS 

THE MAGIC FOREST 

THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 

AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 

THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 

GOLD 

SIMBA 

THE LEOPARD WOMAN 

THE MYSTERY 

(With Samuel Hopkins Adams) 
THE KILLER 
THE ROSE DAWN 
DANIEL BOONE, WILDERNESS SCOUT 




Boone's wife and daughter, Jemima, ivere the first white icomen 
to set foot on the banks of the Kentucky River 



DANIEL BOONE 

Wilderness Scout 

BY 
STEWART EDWARD WHITE 




I LLU S TRA TED B Y 
REMINGTON SCHUYLER 



GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
1922 



Co^U 1 






_^^^7 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY 
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ' 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 

COPTBIGHT, igai, 1922, BY THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMSBICA 

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 

AT 

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 

First Edition 



NOl/18'22 ^ 

>C1A600206,> 
♦'VIC '^ 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Boone's wife and daughter, Jemima, were the 
first white women to set foot on the banks 
of the Kentucky river .... Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Many times on the frontier of those days it 
had happened . . . that the warrior 
stalking by had been painted for war . . 10 

Before they had much more than reached 
mid-stream, the Indians appeared on the 
bank behind them 74 

And so in this pathless, blinded forest . . . 
the Indians moved, invisible, silent 
. . . awaiting the moment to strike . 154 

He was out to kill in his madness; yet he re- 
fused to permit the torture of prisoners . 234 



DANIEL BOONE 

Wilderness Scout 



DANIEL BOONE: 

WILDERNESS SCOUT 



CHAPTER I 

WHEN we think of American pioneers we 
recall automatically certain names — Daniel 
Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, perhaps 
Simon Kenton. Of course there were hundreds, yes 
thousands of others, who met the same dangers, ex- 
hibited at least approximate skill, fought the same 
savages. But the names of most of them are un- 
known: and of the rest only the especial student is 
aware. Often the more obscure men have performed 
specific deeds that common legend ascribes to better 
known names. Columbus, as we know, was really 
not the first to discover America. Common belief has 
it that Daniel Boone "discovered" Kentucky; but 
actually, as we shall see, he first entered Kentucky 
lured by the glowing tales of a man named Finley 
who had, with others, preceded him. Did you ever 
hear of Finley.? But we have all heard of Boone. 

1 



2 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

This is because these men have possessed some 
quality that the others did not. It did not matter 
what especial deeds they performed. Others must 
have performed similar feats, or the West would 
never have been conquered. Those deeds became 
renowned, not so much because they were thrilling, 
but because of the men who did them. 

Thus Daniel Boone's name is inseparably con- 
nected with the occupation of "the dark and bloody 
ground" because he was Daniel Boone. 

He was one of the many great Indian fighters of 
his time: lived for years with his rifle and tomahawk 
next his hand : lost brothers and sons under the scalp- 
ing knife. He was a master of woodcraft, able to find 
his way hundreds of miles through unbroken forests, 
able to maintain himself alone not merely for a day or 
a week but for a year or more without other resources 
than his rifle, his tomahawk, and his knife; and this 
in the face of the most wily of foes. He was muscular 
and strong and enduring; victor in many a hand-to- 
hand combat, conqueror of farms cut from the forest; 
performer of long journeys afoot at speed that would 
seem incredible to a college athlete. He was a dead 
shot with the rifle, an expert hunter of game. Other 
men, long since forgotten, were all these things. 

But Daniel Boone was reverent in the belief that he 
was ordained by God to open the wilderness. He was 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 3 

brave with a courage remarkable for its calmness and 
serenity. Calmness and serenity, indeed, seem to 
have been his characteristics in all his human re- 
lations. Those who knew him remark frequently on 
this, speak of the fact that where everyone else was 
an Indian hater, Boone never cherished rancour 
against them, so that as honourable antagonists they 
always met, both in peace and war. He was trust- 
worthy, so that when wilderness missions of great 
responsibility were undertaken, he was almost in- 
variably the one called. He was loyal to the last 
drop of his blood, as you shall see in this narrative. 
He was ready ever to help others. These are simple, 
fundamental qualities, but they are never anywhere 
too common; they are rarely anywhere combined in 
one man: and in those rough times of primitive men 
they sujffiiced, when added to his wilderness skill and 
determination, to make him the leading and most 
romantic figure. If the Boy Scouts would know a 
man who in his attitude toward the life to which he 
was called most nearly embodied the precepts of their 
laws let them look on Daniel Boone. Gentle, kindly, 
modest, peace-loving, absolutely fearless, a master of 
Indian warfare, a mighty hunter, strong as a bear and 
active as a panther, his life was lived in daily danger, 
almost perpetual hardship and exposure; yet he died 
in his bed at nearly ninety years of age. 



^ CHAPTER II 

^NY normal and healthy boy would have 
/-^ revelled in a youth similar to that of Daniel 
Boone. He was the fourth of seven brothers; 
and was born on the banks of the Delaware River 
about twenty miles above Philadelphia. His place 
in history can be better remembered than by dates 
when you know that he was just three years younger 
than George Washington. When he was three years 
old, the family moved up state to a frontier settle- 
ment that has since become the city of Reading. 
Here he spent his boyhood and his early youth, and 
here he took his first lessons in a school that was to 
help him through all his life, the Wilderness. 

For at that time Reading was a collection of huts 
situated in a virgin country. People lived in log 
houses set in clearings that were slowly and labori- 
ously cut out from the forest. They spent their 
days swinging the axe, hauling and burning the brush 
and logs, heaving out the snarled and snaggy stumps 
which were sometimes burned, but more often 
dragged to the boundaries of fields where they were 
set on edge and so formed a fence of many twisted 

4 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 5 

arms and crevices and holes and devious passageways 
through which such things as woodchucks or squirrels 
or ruffed grouse or small boys could slip in a fascinat- 
ing series of games or escapes. And then the soil 
must be ploughed and planted. Cattle roamed the 
woods near by, with bells so that they could be more 
easily found. These must be brought in every night; 
and while usually they gathered of their own accord 
anticipating the reward of a few handfuls of corn, 
often they must be sought for in the depths of the 
forest. That was in itself a fine training in wood- 
craft; for not only must one find the cows, but must 
not get lost oneself. The clothes worn were spun and 
woven on the place; every item of food and wear, 
with very few exceptions, were grown or fashioned at 
home. Never was there lack of fascinating and use- 
ful occupation for the little Boones, occupation that 
not only developed their muscles but their wits. 

For one thing was never forgotten. This was on 
the border of the Indian country. The little settle- 
ment of Reading was not near enough the savages' 
home country to be exposed to the frequent attacks 
in force which we in company with Boone shall see 
later; but it was always in danger of raids and forays 
by stray war parties from over the mountains. It 
was settled and inhabited in great part by men who 
in their youth had fought the Indians. As part of 



6 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

their earliest education the children were taught 
caution when out of sight of home. The woodcraft 
of moving quietly in the forest, of trying always to 
see everything before affording a chance of being 
seen, of freezing into immobility and silence at the 
slightest unknown sound or movement until it could 
be identified was impressed upon them as a mother 
partridge impresses the same thing on her young. 

Nor was there lack of opportunity for practice. 
Plenty of Indians visited the little settlement. They 
were ** friendly" Indians: that is to say, they were 
not at war with these settlers and came on peaceful 
errands. But as Indians they were always to be 
suspected by a brace of small boys hunting cows in 
the forest. And so very early in life these children 
became more expert in observation and more skilful 
in concealment than anybody could possibly be 
nowadays, unless he had the same training. No 
more thrilling, fascinating game of I-spy or hide-and- 
seek could be imagined than this penetration of the 
leafy dark forest, every sense alert for every sound 
and movement; the mind recognizing them instantly 
— red squirrel scratching the bark, to wee the leaves; 
the rare weird scrape of a leaning tree rubbing 
another as the wind touched it; the cautious pad of 
the lynx as it crossed a patch of dead and sodden 
leaves; the innumerable disguised voices of wind and 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 7 

water and the cautious conversation of woods crea- 
tures — there are a thousand of them; and they all 
indicate life or movement, and any of them^ight be 
a prowling savage, unless one is so familiar with them 
that he recognizes them for what they are. And 
when unmistakably that sound or movement is the 
savage, stalking confidently along in the forest aisles 
with head shaven all but the long scalplock at the 
crown, painted from head to toe in the bright colours 
that indicate peace, his black eyes shifting keenly 
with the perpetual restlessness of the man who lives 
among dangers, what a triumph to fade so unobtru- 
sively into concealment that the warrior passes 
unnoticing! There was a zest to this game. For 
many, many times on the frontier of those days it had 
happened, in communities quite as peaceful, ap- 
parently, as this, that the warrior stalking by had 
been painted for war — the war paint varied with 
difiFerent tribes: but was most often black with 
white markings — and that the children searching the 
woods for the cattle had not managed to escape 
notice. Then they had been tomahawked or their 
brains dashed out against trees or carried away. 
Just such a thing might happen at any time, any- 
where. You may be sure that that thought was im- 
pressed upon them, until it was always present in their 
minds. And so, later, when you read of marvellous 



8 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

escapes, feats of woodcraft, wiles of strategy that 
seem incredible, remember this training from the 
earliest a^ars. 

Later when the day's work was over and the fire 
was roaring in the fireplace, the elders' conversation 
had largely to do with the strategy and wiles of 
Indian warfare. These men talked of it not merely 
in the way of reminiscence or to tell a tale; but 
practically. They compared notes and exchanged 
ideas earnestly, as men would exchange experiences 
or methods of any job. Thus young Daniel crouched 
in the chimney corner and listening with all his ears 
learned of the innumerable wiles and stratagems in 
which the Indians were so skilful and ingenious; and 
he learned them, not the way you and I learn them — 
as curious matters of interest — but as practical 
expedients to be used in life; much as you now would 
listen to experts talking about exactly how and where 
to fish where you are going on your vacation. These 
items of experience had been bought with blood and 
massacre. Each trick of the foe had probably suc- 
ceeded one or more times. Only thus did these 
pioneers learn to maintain themselves. 

Besides the necessity of getting in the cattle were 
other errands that took our youngsters abroad. In 
those times were tasks for every pair of hands, no 
matter how small. We of this age hardly know what 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 9 

poverty is, as these men and women knew it. We 
may know discomfort and squalor; but we rarely 
front the danger of famine, for example, face to face. 
These people perforce travelled life with a light pack. 
Like the hunter far from his base, they must take 
every advantage the country offered. Thus the 
hickory nuts, and walnuts, and beechnuts and butter- 
nuts, that to us mean merely a good time in the fall, 
to them were an essential part of the foodstuffs, and 
were carefully gathered and stored. That was the 
children's job. Then, too, there were the berries and 
wild fruits — blackberries, raspberries, huckleberries, 
wild plums, wild grapes — which were to be garnered 
in their proper season; and edible roots. The knowl- 
edge of these, together with the possibilities of the 
inner bark of certain trees, came to these young 
people, not in the way of play, but in the course of 
e very-day life. Later when it became necessary, as 
it often did, for them to cut loose from all contact 
with civilization and to rely on the wilderness for 
every item of their food, clothing, and shelter, — save 
powder and lead, — they could do so. 

Another phase of this unique schooling was that 
which is now done by our games and gymnasiums. I 
refer to the building of their physical bodies. They 
had pretty good stock to start from. Their immediate 
forbears were picked men — picked by the energy and 



10 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

restlessness of their dispositions to leave the more 
contented stay-at-homes and set sail into a new 
world; picked again from the more settled seaboard 
by the enterprise and audacity of their spirits to push 
out into a hard and dangerous wilderness. But in 
addition to a good heredity they had the advantage 
of a healthy life. There were privations and even 
sufferings, to be sure; but in the majority of cases 
these served merely to harden the fibre. Year in 
year out the food was wholesome and generally 
abundant. Besides the game, fish, berries, and other 
wild products they had cornbread, Indian pudding, 
maple sugar, milk, butter, and sweet potatoes. Their 
days were spent in the open air. From the time 
they could toddle they were given tasks within their 
strength, all of which required long continued muscu- 
lar effort. When in their teens they used the axe, 
drove the teams, lifted at the logs and timbers, held 
the plough, wrestled with the clearing and the planting 
of the stubborn soil. As offset to this heavy labour, 
which might otherwise tend to make them clumsy 
and musclebound, were their expeditions into the 
forest; at first, as we have said, after the cattle and 
wild nuts and berries near at home, later in pursuit 
of game for the family meat supply. The necessity 
for wariness, not only to get the game but to save 
their own scalps, made them as supple and endur- 




Many times on the frontier of those days it had happened . . 
that the warriors stalking by had been painted for war 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 11 

ing as their home labour made them sinewy and 
strong. 

This physical prowess was further encouraged by 
the sports of the day. They did not have baseball, 
nor basket ball nor football. But when boys, or 
grown men, got together they played games just the 
same. Catch-as-catch-can wrestling was much in 
vogue. There were no complicated rules. You 
just got hold of the other fellow and tried to throw 
him. Technicalities did not go. It did you no good 
to prove that both shoulders were not on the ground; 
you were flat on your back, and that was enough. 
It got you nowhere to flop promptly and then play a 
defensive game flat on your tummy; you were down, 
and — what was the real point — your opponent could 
beat your face in or tomahawk you, were it the real 
thing. You were licked. They ran footraces, too, 
at all distances; jumped, both high and wide. One of 
the most important of sports was throwing a knife 
or a tomahawk at a mark. So, of course, was shoot- 
ing. About the only real game, as we understand 
that term, was lacrosse. I suppose you all have a 
theoretical knowledge of that game; some of you have 
seen it; and perhaps a few of you have played it. If 
not, look it up. It is sufficient to say here that there 
is no game that involves more long-continued fast 
running, is harder on the wind, or that requires more 



12 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

endurance. When later you read some astonishing 
stories of feats of running performed by men escaping, 
or attempting to escape, from the Indians, remember 
all this early^ easy, natural, almost unconscious train- 
ing. These boys exercised not at stated intervals, 
or between hours spent indoors, but every day, all 
day. 

One other thing. They often underwent what to 
most of us would seem extreme discomfort. We 
certainly do hate to be literally wet to the skin. 
Often we say we are "drenched through" when in 
reality we are wet outside and sort of chilly damp in 
a few places that touch our skin. But to be really 
wet through, as when one falls in a river, is to most of 
us pretty tough and we think we've had a hard time, 
even when we have very shortly a warm house to go 
to. These children had no umbrellas, no waterproof 
coats, no rubbers. Indeed, their usual foot covering 
was the deerskin moccasin; and that, as the old-timer 
expressed it, will wet through two days before it rains. 
They were so often wet, so often cold, that early in 
life they took these conditions merely as annoying but 
inevitable. They slept in un warmed rooms that in 
winter were so cold that water in a pail or pan would 
freeze solid to the bottom. In the morning they had 
to pile out in that atmosphere, break the ice, and 
wash. I am not going to harrow your tender feelings 



Daniel Booiie: Wilderness Scout 13 

further. These things were not sufferings, were not 
so very terrible. I do not doubt that a certain 
number of my readers in the rural districts may be a 
good deal in the same boat themselves. But in 
additio7i to all the rest it was hardening and tempering 
them later to endure. You must understand the way 
they were raised and the training they had in order 
intelligently to read of their later adventures. 

I am tempted to digress at this point and tell you a 
story of five of these boys, aged from nine to thirteen 
years. It has nothing to do with Daniel Boone, 
except that it shows what this backwoods training 
can do toward making young lads self-reliant beyond 
their years. 

It was in the year 1785. The two Linn brothers, 
a boy named Brasher, one named Wells, and another 
whose name we do not know left home to shoot ducks. 
They camped overnight near the Ohio River. The 
fact that they were allowed thus to go alone at a dis- 
tance shows that the country must have been for 
some time quiet and that Indians were not expected. 
However, hardly had they returned from their shoot- 
ing and lighted their cooking fire when they found 
themselves surrounded by savages. In spite of the 
fact that they were completely encircled Linn and 
Brasher made a dash for it. Brasher was a fast run- 
ner and an expert dodger, even at the age of twelve. 



14 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

but he stumbled over a root and was seized. Linn 
made better progress, and might even have broken 
through and escaped, but he refused to drop his 
ducks ! 

Gathered together about their own fire the Indians 
proceeded to question them. 

"Where you from.^" demanded their leader. 

^Trom Louisville," instantly answered Linn, 
naming a place at some distance in order to conceal 
the nearness of his own people. 

They were marched at a swift pace for many days 
until they reached the Indian town. Indians on such 
a journey travel steadily all the day through, without 
pause. They carry as provisions only com and maple 
sugar. Their pace is rapid and over rough country. 
If any captive lags or falls behind, he is tomahawked. 
Yet these boys of from nine to thirteen kept pace 
with their captors. 

At the Indian town the women and children rushed 
out to meet them shouting abuse, pelting them with 
dirt and sticks, finally approaching near enough to 
pinch and slap them. The Kentucky boys drew 
close in a little group. Finally Linn picked out the 
biggest Indian boy of the lot and knocked him down 
with a straight left. It appears that as a lead the 
straight left was a complete surprise to these rough- 
and-tumble right-handed fighters. That particular 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 15 

Indian boy was so much hurt, or — more likely — so 
much astonished, that he did not get up; but another 
promptly flew at young Linn for revenge. Linn 
licked this one. That was too much. Every young- 
ster in the village piled in. The white boys stood back 
to back and met them. It was Kentucky against the 
field. The squaws too tried to mix in the rumpus, but 
the Indian men, interested in this battle against odds, 
forbade them. And in spite of those odds the white 
boys won the battle. 

They were adopted into the tribe, and to a boy 
entered into the life wholeheartedly and with appar- 
ent enthusiasm, as though they had no regrets for, 
had forgotten, their own people. This was dissimu- 
lation so well carried out, even by the nine-year-old, 
as completely to deceive the sharp-eyed watchfulness 
keen for any signs of grief, homesickness or regret. 
They took part in the hunting, in the wrestling, the 
riding and racing. Gradually they gained the 
confidence of the Indians until at last they were sent 
on a fishing expedition in charge of a very old Indian 
and a squaw. 

Down the river they consulted anxiously and 
changed their minds a number of times. To get 
home they must cross alone many miles of dense 
forest wilderness absolutely unknown to them. 
Think how hard it is to keep from getting lost in a 



16 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

very moderate-sized swamp bottomland, and realize 
what that means. This wilderness, moreover, was 
full of enemies; and they were certain to be pursued 
by the most skilled woodcraftsmen as soon as their 
absence was discovered. They had almost no food; 
and no weapons except their knives. They were, as 
we have seen, only boys. Try to think of yourself 
in their places. Yet their hesitation was on account 
of none of these things. They were matters-of- 
course, only to be expected. But they knew that if 
they were to get clear away it would be absolutely 
necessary for them to kill the old Indian and the 
squaw; and that was a dreadful decision for boys to 
face. 

But it was their only chance. Shortly the tribe 
would be moving so far away as to make thought of 
escape hopeless. The deed was done. 

It took them just three weeks to reach the river, 
three weeks in the wilderness without food or shelter 
other than they could pick up by the way, without 
other directions than those their wits suggested, and 
at the last pursued by the Indians. They found their 
way, they fed themselves on the berries, barks, and 
roots their education had taught them; they eluded 
the savages; and so at last came out just where they 
wanted to be, on the bank of the river opposite Louis- 
ville. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 17 

Here they shouted until they were seen. But the 
people of the town were afraid to cross to them. It 
resembled a very old Indian stratagem. Again and 
again apparent white people, speaking good English, 
had appeared on river banks opposite towns or flat- 
boats floating down the current. They told piteous 
tales of escape from captivity, of imminent pursuit, 
and begged frantically for rescue before the Indians 
at their heels should appear and destroy them. No 
decent man could resist such an appeal. Yet when 
the flatboat had been swung to the shore, or when a 
rescue party had crossed from the town, suddenly 
had uprisen hundreds of warriors, and the decoys 
among them. A good many massacres had taken 
place in this manner, enough to make that particular 
stratagem well known. 

So though the boys used every means at their 
command to carry conviction, they failed. The 
river was here too wide to talk across. 

"We'll be caught if we stay here," said Linn 
desperately at last, "the Indians are not far behind 
us." 

They turned up-stream and then, with no other 
tools than their knives, they set about making a raft. 
They went up-stream so that when they crossed the 
current would not take them below the town. They 
collected pieces of driftwood and down logs small 



18 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

enough to manage, and bound them together with 
strips of bark. (Would you know, as they did, just 
what bark would come off in strips at that time of 
year and would be tough enough to use thus?) The 
raft was done in a very short time. Four sat on it 
and Linn swam behind, pushing. So real had been 
the necessity of haste that before they had much 
more than reached mid-stream the Indians appeared 
on the banks behind them! It sounds almost too 
much like a moving-picture plot; but it is true. The 
Indians fired at them, and the bullets splashed the 
water all about them; but they arrived safely. 

So when you read, or someone tells you, that 
Daniel Boone or his contemjx)raries were "ignorant 
and uneducated," don't you believe them. Edu- 
cation is the learning of things that fit one for life. 
These men may have been to a certain extent illiter- 
ate in that they did not read many books; but they 
read life and nature more closely than we ever will, 
and to greater purpose than most of us will ever read 
anything. Daniel Boone's spelling was on a free and 
untrammelled principle of his own, though he could 
express himself well and clearly; but it was not one 
per cent, as free and untrammelled as our readings 
would be of the things that meant happiness, life, or 
death in his kind of life. He was a very highly edu- 
cated man; and this is proved by his character, his 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 19 

intelligence, and his wisdom. The value of any kind 
of education is not whether you know more of certain 
things — book or otherwise — than the other fellow, 
but what intelligence, wisdom, and character you de- 
velop by its means. 

One item of this education, and one of the most 
important, I have left until the last. The entire 
meat supply of those days came from the wild game. 
If a man would provide for his family he must be a 
hunter, and a good one. It is a mistake to suppose 
that abundance of game always means easier hunting. 
It may be easier to find where game is, but the indi- 
vidual animal was just as wary then as now, and its 
successful pursuit demanded as much woodcraft. 
Besides the usual supply of fresh meat from this 
source, it was customary also to lay aside each year 
sufficient dried meat in strips, or "jerkey." It 
might be interesting for you to know that the word 
" jerkey " is a corruption of an ancient Peruvian word 
from the time of the Incas, char qui, meaning dried 
meat. Therefore at proper times of year, in addition 
to the usual short excursions near at hand, the settlers 
of those days used to make specifically hunting trips 
at a distance for the purpose of laying in as much 
meat as they could to last over the winter. Hunting 
was not only a sport but a serious occupation. 

Fortunately the game was abundant. Deer 



20 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

roamed the forests in herds; bear were incredibly 
numerous; squirrels and grouse were everywhere; 
wild turkey frequented the woods in large flocks. 
Although as yet beyond the reach of young Boone, 
buffalo and elk swarmed but just over the seaboard 
mountains. Youngsters were not merely permitted 
to learn to shoot, nor left more or less to their own 
devices in the process; they were painstakingly 
taught to shoot just as soon as they could lift, how- 
ever waveringly, the long, heavy rifles of the day. 
After a certain amount of preliminary instruction the 
small boy got a licking if he missed; and he was 
openly shamed if he hit a squirrel anywhere but in 
the head. At the age of twelve he was made a ''fort 
soldier", and assigned a particular loophole in case 
of attack. 

In all this varied education young Daniel Boone 
took part and profited. Indeed he may be said to 
have been a precocious scholar, graduating younger 
than his mates and with higher honours. He had a 
true passion for hunting, a passion that lasted all his 
life and into his extreme old age. In very early 
boyhood he had a cabin all of his own, built by him- 
self, at some distance from home, where he used to 
live for considerable periods by himself, for the 
purpose of better hunting. This most wholesome 
of sports took him constantly far afield, led him into 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 21 

all the nooks and intricate byways of the wilder- 
ness about him, coaxed him into grandeurs and 
beauties that stay-at-home pioneering could never 
have shown him. That is what makes the chase of 
wild animals noble. That is why the man who 
kills his deer on a still hunt is miles above the one 
who stops at a salt lick or runway; why he who makes 
his own stalk can look down on the man who tails 
a guide. Why is a mountain sheep a trophy and a 
merino sheep not? Because the former requires 
skill and knowledge to acquire. If somebody else 
is furnishing the skill and knowledge, and you are 
just trailing along and pulling the trigger when you 
are told to, why not shoot the merino.^ It means 
just as much, really: you can make the actual rifle 
shot as distant as you please. But if you do shoot 
the mountain sheep, or the elk, or whatever it is, 
after a guide has done all the real work for you, and 
you hang its head on the wall, aren't you tacitly 
indulging in a little false pretence.^ A mountain 
sheep head, in a way, is a sort of advertisement or 
certificate that a certain amount of woodcraft and 
especial skill has been used to get it. That is the 
only reason why a tame sheep's head is not just 
as good. If you hang it on your wall, as your 
trophy, you imply that you had and used that wood- 
craft and especial skill. Did you.^^ The real aim 



22 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

of sportsmanlike hunting, the real value of the 
hunting instinct, is not the killing of animals; it is 
the acquiring of qualities of wisdom and hardihood 
and patience and knowledge that wHl enable you to 
find and kill animals. 



CHAPTER III 

SINCE the two most important single items 
in the hfe and development of those times 
were the axe and the rifle, and since fire- 
arms and shooting are interesting in themselves, it 
will be amusing and worth while to talk about them 
a little. I suppose it would not be an exaggeration 
to say that from cradle to grave one or the other of 
these instruments was in the hands of any pioneer 
during fully half his waking hours. 

Of the axe there is not much of importance. The 
American pioneer developed the well-balanced instru- 
ment we use to-day. Before him — and indeed in 
many parts of Europe still — the helve was straight 
and clumsy. But every frontier farm had to be 
cleared by chopping, and the wielders of the axes 
soon refined the old implement to a long, slender 
affair with a light head. The material was softer 
than that of our present-day axes. It blunted more 
easily; but in compensation it could be sharpened 
readily on stones to be picked up almost anywhere. 

As to the rifle, there is the widest misconception. 
Those who do not know very much about rifles are 

23 



24 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

quite apt to ascribe impossible accuracy to them. 
James Fenimore Cooper had a lot to do with that 
by telling in his Leatherstocking Tales of Hawkeye 
hitting nail heads at a hundred yards, clipping the 
beads off soaring hawks, placing one bullet on top 
of another, and a whole variety of wonderful tales. 
The tradition has been carried forward by romancers 
and just plain and fancy liars ever since. 

Now item one: you cannot see a nail head at one 
hundred yards; and anybody who can hit what he 
cannot see is wasting his time when there are so 
many other miracles to be performed. Item two: 
there is such a thing as the "error of dispersion." 
That is to say, if you place any rifle in a machine 
rest and from it fire a series of shots, you will not 
find the bullets superimposed one over the other: 
they will be found grouped very close together, and 
the diameter of that group is the error of dispersion. 
This error is due to a number of things, some in- 
herent in the weapon and the ammunition, and some 
due to temperature, wind, barometric pressure, and 
the like. The error of dispersion at Cooper's hun- 
dred yards for the most accurate rifle ever made 
would average an inch or two wider than any nail 
head. 

But James Fenimore Cooper is not alone re- 
sponsible. We get many honestly intended stories 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 25 

of the prowess of "a man I know." One man of 
my acquaintance used to turn an interesting purple 
at even an eyebrow raised over his story of an 
acquaintance who habitually killed running coyotes 
at eight hundred yards with a 30-30 carbine. I 
do not know the exact error of dispersion of that 
weapon at that range but it is somewhere between 
ten and forty feet! And, mind you, in considering 
only the error of dispersion we are assuming that 
the shooter sees perfectly, holds perfectly, can esti- 
mate distance to a yard, lets off perfectly. 

Having thus disposed of the dispersion error as a 
reason for distrusting the Dick Dead-eyes, we will 
now examine another little joker called the triangle 
of error. You lay your rifle across some sort of 
solid rest; and, without touching it, you look through 
the sights. About forty feet away you have a friend 
with a pencil, and a piece of white paper pinned 
against a box. The friend moves the point of the 
pencil here and there at your command until the 
sights are accurately aligned on it. Then you yell 
Mark! and the friend makes a little dot — invisible 
to you — where the point of the pencil happens to be. 
He removes the pencil, you remove your eye from 
the sights, and try it again of course without dis- 
turbing the gun. If your eye is absolutely accurate 
the second pencil dot should be on top of the first. 



26 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

Only it isn't. The triangle formed by three trials 
is the above-mentioned triangle of error. It meas- 
ures the variations of sighting your eye has be- 
trayed you into through the fixed sights of an un- 
moved gun. The size of the triangle will humiliate 
you. It can be reduced by practice; and it must 
be reduced by practice if you are to become a good 
shot; but it will never entirely disappear. Its 
error must be added to — or, in case of a lucky shot, 
subtracted from — the dispersion error. 

Up to this moment you have not touched the gun, 
yet already the Leatherstocking feats have been 
shown to be absurd. Now you must introduce the 
personal element, the consideration of whether you 
are a good shot or not. Daniel Boone and his 
companions were wonderful shots, but they were 
not perfect shots. No man is that. And this 
personal error, no matter how small, must be added 
to the mechanical errors mentioned above. No 
wonder people get a false idea of the capabilities of 
rifle shooting, so that when they see some really 
good shooting it does not seem much to them. And 
no wonder those who do know something about it 
come to distrust all the old stories. 

But these have gone to the other extreme in their 
disparagement of the arms of those days. They 
are willing to acknowledge that the men who used 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 27 

them were wonderful shots, considering the arms 
they had to use; but that with modern weapons they 
would have been very much better shots. For the 
old flint-lock rifles of those days they have a good- 
humoured contempt. They point out the ex- 
cessively long, heavy barrel, the short, light stock 
with its scooped butt plate; the simple open sights; 
and they clinch the matter by calling attention to 
the flint lock and what they think must have been 
its slow action, amounting practically to "hang 
fire." In contrast they show us the modern light, 
high-velocity rifle with its balance, its aperture or 
telescopic sights, its true, quick-acting locks, the 
speed and precision of its percussion ignition. The 
legend emanating from this body of opinion is 
that accurate shooting, as we understand it, must 
have been quite impossible. 

Well, let us see. 

The typical "Kentucky rifle" looks to us like a 
uselessly and stupidly clumsy affair, to be sure. It 
was so long that a tall man could rest his chin on 
its muzzle when the butt was on the ground. In 
contrast to its heavy, long octagonal barrel, the 
stock was short and light, which made it muzzle 
heavy. The low sights consisted of a plain bar 
with a nick in it for the rear, and a knife-blade of 
silver or bone in front. It was fired, of course, by 



28 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

a flint lock. Boone's rifle, which is still in ex- 
istence, was five feet three and a half inches long, 
of which the barrel was over four feet. It carried a 
round ball that weighed 55 to the pound, or 130 
grains — 15 grains more than a .32 Winchester. As 
the balls were round, however, the calibre was 
about 44. It weighed eleven pounds. 

Now why did Boone pick that particular kind of 
weapon.^ Most people do not realize that there 
were then plenty of what we call light and handy 
rifles in existence, and they shot well, too. All 
sorts of ideas were tried out very thoroughly. There 
was plenty of opportunity to experiment. If Boone 
and his companions and contemporaries deliber- 
ately chose all their lives to carry eleven pounds of 
metal, to burden themselves with five feet or so of 
gun, then they must have had good reasons. As a 
matter of fact, they did have good reasons. 

In the backwoods, remote from all sources of 
supply, economy of powder and lead was greatly 
desirable. It became an absolute necessity when, 
as did Boone, the hunter cut loose for a year at 
a time. He should be able to vary his charge of 
powder according to the distance he had to shoot 
and the game to be shot. Now a patched round 
bullet in a barrel with a slow twist is the only sort 
whose consistent shooting is not affected by great 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 29 

variations of powder charge. A rifle shooting a 
long or conical bullet must be resighted with any 
radical increase or reduction of the charge. It 
will be just as accurate with the new charge, per- 
haps, but the bullets will hit to the right or left of 
the old sighting. Increase of powder behind a 
patched round ball, however, does not affect the 
sighting at all. It will merely add velocity, and 
so cause it to shoot farther and hit harder. The 
sighting does not have to be changed. 

Thus the hunter when shooting small game at 
close ranges would often use but a thimbleful of 
powder, while for extreme distances he would pour 
in double! Each man tried out his own rifle with 
different charges until he knew exactly what it 
would do. Usually about half the weight of the 
bullet in powder made a full load. He took the 
same sight up to about fifty yards with the thimble- 
ful charge that he would at one hundred with the 
full charge, or a hundred and fifty with a double 
charge. There is a very persistent legend, which 
probably you have heard, that they used to measure 
the powder by pouring it on a bullet held in the 
palm of the hand until the bullet was completely 
covered. No such inaccurate method would have 
been tolerated for a moment by any good shot. 
When once the proper charge was determined the 



30 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

hunter made him a little charge cup to hold just 
the proper amount, usually from the tip of a deer's 
horn, and this was suspended by the bottom (to 
keep it dry) from the powder horn. 

Thus we have found a very good reason for the 
round ball, and for the fact that the front and rear 
sights were fixed. They did not need to be moved 
because the point of aim was always the same: the 
powder was varied for different ranges, and as there 
was no increased "drift" it was unnecessary to 
move them sideways. 

But why the very long, thick, and therefore heavy 
barrel.^ We are usually told that it was to "burn 
all the powder." It is a fact, however, that in a 
machine rest a barrel a foot, or even eighteen inches, 
shorter is just as accurate. As a matter of fact, the 
reason is the same as for the round ball: scarcity of 
ammunition. The aim had to be deadly. It might 
be added that without muzzle loaders, and without 
the advantage of our magazines, it was extremely 
desirable to make the first shot count! And so, 
again, the aim had to be deadly. It must be re- 
membered that these weapons were developed in 
a country where most of the shooting was done in 
the deep shade of forests. Aperture sights were 
out of the question: and aperture sights are the 
only sort that do not blur near the eye. Try it. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 31 

You will find it impossible to focus sharply on the 
rear sight, the front sight, and the object of aim all 
at the same time. One of them must be blurred 
somewhat. Usually it is the rear sight, because a 
slight blur there is of lesser importance. How can 
this be obviated? By getting the eyes farther away 
from the rear sight. Try that. Lay your rifle 
across a table and then look over the sights from 
a little distance back. Both the sights and the 
object of aim will be clear and well defined; and 
naturally that makes for better accuracy. The 
only way to gain this result is to build a very long 
barrel and place the rear sight some distance down it. 
For remember, if you want accuracy there must be 
considerable distance between the front and rear 
sights. In addition to this consideration there is 
no question that a strong man can hold a muzzle- 
heavy gun steadier than he can a muzzle-light gun; 
and these were all strong men. 

Besides, the thick barrel vibrates less than the 
thin barrel, has less "whip", as it is called. A 
modern light rifle often has a tremendous "whip", 
sufficient to throw the bullet far off the mark, but 
since the whip is always the same it can be com- 
pensated for by the sights. If the powder charge is 
changed, however, then the amount and perhaps the 
direction of the whip changes, so that your former 



32 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

sighting would be no good at all. That is one 
reason why reduced charges are so unsatisfactory 
in modern rifles. But these thick, heavy barrels 
reduced whip to almost nothing. It was still further 
reduced by the material from which the barrels 
were made, a very soft iron, so soft that a shaving 
could be cut from the edge of the octagon barrel 
without dulling a knife. The fact that they made 
the knives showed that they could make harder 
metal; but this soft iron had less vibration, less whip. 

There was also less recoil to a heavy gun. That 
does not sound important; certainly these husky fron- 
tiersmen ought not to have minded that, especially 
in view of the "kick" we get along with in our rifles. 
It was not important when the butt was rested 
against the shoulder. But very often the butt was 
rested on the upper arm, or even in the crook of the 
elbow. It enabled the shooter to hold looser and 
across his body, which made for steadiness: but it 
was especially practised because he could shoot from 
behind a tree without exposing more than an eye 
and his forearm. And that was a healthy thing to 
do! 

The sights were set low on the barrel not only for 
the obvious reason that they were less liable to in- 
jury, but also to prevent the rifleman from *' drawing 
coarse," that is taking in too much of the front sight 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 33 

and hence shooting too high. We do that on purpose 
sometimes when shooting at longer ranges, but they 
got the same effect, it must be remembered, by in- 
creasing the powder charges. As has been said, the 
sights were in forest country adjusted for one hundred 
yards for full charges and one hundred and fifty 
yards for the double charges. In the open country 
and in war they made these point-blank ranges longer. 

Shooting across the body and from behind trees 
accounts for the deep scooped butt-plates and for the 
shortness and "drop" of the stocks. On the right 
side of the latter was a trap with a hinged brass cover 
for patches and grease. You may be sure that the 
brass was never polished! Indeed when the metal 
anywhere began to show bright it was rubbed with 
the crushed pod of a green hazelnut or some other 
vegetable acid. No one wanted a glint of light to 
betray him to his foes. 

The bore at the muzzle was very slightly enlarged 
to permit of seating the bullet easily, which rested 
on a greased patch and was rammed home so as just 
to touch the powder, but not to crush the grains. 
That is another silly legend, that the bullet must be 
rammed down hard "until the ramrod jumps out of 
the barrel." Such a procedure would give an as- 
tounding variety of pressures; and our forebears knew 
better. Home-made linen was used for the patches. 



34 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

It is generally buckskin in the story books; but buck- 
skin was too thick and was never used when linen 
could be had. It permitted quicker loading, because 
the bullet did not need to be forced in to make a 
tight fit; it made a gas check that prevented the gas 
from getting into the barrel ahead of the bullet; it 
prevented stripping the ball, and so "leading" the 
barrel; and it made possible firing many times with- 
out cleaning. 

The flint lock, of course, they used because they 
had no other. If they could have had percussion 
they would have been the more pleased. But a 
properly made flint lock was not too slow for accurate 
shooting. They are judged mainly by the crude 
specimens to be found on the old Brown Bess muskets 
and similar atrocities to be seen hanging on our walls. 
These had a ponderous hammer with a long sweep, 
a cumbersome heavy trigger, an appreciable hang 
fire. Click— floo — fean^.' went they. But the rifles of 
the hunters were furnished with finely adjustable set 
triggers that went off at a touch. For the benefit of 
those who do not know: a set trigger outfit consists 
of two triggers; when one is pressed it "sets" the 
other, which will then go off literally "at a touch." 
Until set, however, it is safe. The spring, lock, and 
pan all worked smoothly and accurately together, 
" like two sides of a wolf trap," as somebody expressed 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 35 

it. " The mainspring," wrote the same man, "has an 
even velvety feel, soft yet quick and sharp. It shot 
with remarkable evenness. This was due to the 
fact that the same amount of gas escaped from the 
touch hole each time it was fired. The touch hole 
was bushed with platinum and therefore never 
burned out. And, finally, I never saw this arm misfire. 
Its owner never used any but the finest French flints, 
thin and very sharp. They were semi-transparent, 
and one would fire 150 shots." 

That was something all these men insisted on, the 
thin, clear flint, scraped very flne and clean, and held 
by very tight-set screws. That, with the other de- 
tails noted above, practically obviated hang fires. 

Another thing they were extremely particular 
about was the quality of the powder. They made 
gunpowder in America then, but it was of an inferior 
quality, consumed mainly by farmers. Occasionally 
a backwoodsman might employ it on game near 
home but never, if he could help it, on any serious 
business. He wanted French powder, with its fine, 
hard grains of a glossy black. This was quicker and 
more uniform in action, and when it was used the 
rifle did not need wiping out so often. Caked pow- 
der dirt, as we all know, is fatal to accuracy. 

This powder was carried in a powder horn of from 
a half pound to a pound capacity. It was literally 



36 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

a cow or buffalo horn, but was far from the ugly 
clumsy makeshifts we see hanging on old muskets. 
Our frontiersman used to scrape and scrape again 
until the horn was almost as thin as isinglass. When 
the grains of the powder could be seen through the 
horn, it was considered a good job. From the tip of 
the horn depended by a thong the charger, hung 
mouth down to keep it dry. Never in any circum- 
stances did they use metal powder horns. They 
were made even then, but they were used exclusively 
by the farmer and the military. Powder carried 
for any length of time in copper or iron is sure to de- 
teriorate because these metals "sweat," — accumulate 
moisture at different temperatures. Powder came 
from the factories in canisters, but was invariably 
transferred to wooden kegs when it was to be stored 
for any length of time; or in gourds for lighter trans- 
portation. Lewis and Clark had the ingenious idea 
of carrying their main powder supply in caskets of 
lead, which does not sweat; and they made the cas- 
kets of just enough lead to melt into bullets for the 
amount of powder they contained. The bullets were 
carried in a pouch, which, by the way, was called 
the shot pouch, never the bullet pouch. 

With this outfit the first-class shot could not drive 
nails at a hundred yards, nor superimpose balls one 
over the other, but he could do excellent shooting. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 37 

In comparison with what anybody else could do in 
those days with any other weapon then extant, he 
did marvellous shooting. Muskets were elsewhere 
in almost universal use, long smooth bores. Their 
bore was a little larger than that of a 12-gauge shot- 
gun, and carried a round ball of about 600 grains. If 
carefully aimed it would hit a mark a foot square at 
forty yards. At one hundred yards, where Cooper's 
riflemen were driving nails, about half the balls 
would go into a four-foot square. At two hundred 
yards it is on record that an "expert" triumphantly 
planted a bullet on a mark eighteen feet square! 
This was all very well when all you had to do was to 
hit a whole regiment in the close formation of that 
day, but when it came to a squirrel's head or an In- 
dian's eye ! 

It is a little difficult to get accurate records, for 
they did not keep them. The men did a good deal 
of match shooting, but the proposition was to come 
closest to a pin point dead centre. A cross was 
marked on a piece of board, and the contestant 
pinned over the cross anything he pleased, large or 
small, to aim at. After he had fired they took down 
the paper and examined to see how near the centre 
of the cross his bullet had hit. It is related quite 
casually of Daniel Boone that at a siege by Indians 
he shot through the head a man perched in a tree two 



38 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

hundred paces away. That would be excellent shoot- 
ing to-day. Hangar, a British officer, says of the 
backwoodsman that " Provided he can draw good and 
true sight he can hit the head of a man at two hundred 
yards." As you have learned, it was customary to 
shoot squirrels in the head ! Of course, that is close 
range, from twenty to forty yards. It seems prob- 
able that within the limits of their range, even with 
the "clumsy flint-lock rifles," they held even with 
the best shots of our day, making up in practice and 
care of detail what little they lacked in refinement 
of weapon. 

And how they could handle that weapon ! Kephart 
tells of an old-timer who, on request, gave an exhibi- 
tion of loading. He performed the feat in under ten 
seconds. This was a percussion lock. Probably a 
flint lock would be about as fast, for the time neces- 
sary to cap a nipple or prime a pan would be ap- 
proximately the same. It was a commonplace that 
any hunter should be able to reload at a gallop on 
horseback, or when running fast afoot. That was no 
light feat of sleight-of-hand — to pour the powder in 
the muzzle, ram home the ball, prime the pan. It 
strikes me there must have been a lot of powder 
spilled in the learning! 

Of course in the rapid close-range work of a pitched 
battle extreme care was unnecessary. Speed was 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 39 

much more important. The powder was poured in 
by guess direct from the horn. The bullets were held 
in the mouth. Without the greased patch they 
were small enough to drop down the barrel of their 
own weight: and being wet with saliva they stuck to 
the powder and so did not roll out again. But that 
was for pressure of business. Whenever he had the 
seconds to spare the frontiersman loaded carefully, 
and was ready to pick off a foe who exposed no more 
than an eye or an elbow from behind the tree. 



CHAPTER IV 

WHEN the young Daniel Boone was eighteen 
years old his father decided to move farther 
south into a newer country. You may be 
sure Daniel eagerly seconded that move. Although 
the surroundings of Reading would have seemed 
wild enough for us, young Boone already knew them 
so thoroughly that his restless spirit demanded new 
countries to explore. They trekked across Mary- 
land and Virginia on their journey, probably trans- 
porting all their goods in wagons, and accompanied 
by their little herds. This must have been a de- 
lightful journey through a beautiful country, a per- 
petual picnic of camps by the wayside. They settled 
finally near a little river called the South Yadkin in 
the western part of North Carolina. 

This was then a region wild enough and rugged 
enough to suit any spirit of adventure. Here Daniel 
grew up in his father's house. There was an im- 
mense labour to be performed in building, in clearing, 
and in planting; and here he rounded out, brought to 
perfection, the education so well begun. His time was 
divided between being a farmer and being a hunter; 

40 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 41 

with, however, considerable emphasis on the latter. 
Plenty of good farmers were to be had, but very few 
hunters as crafty, as well-informed, and as successful 
as Boone. To him was confided a great deal of the 
business of hunting, the procuring of the meat 
supply, for the rest of the family realized that from 
a given expenditure of powder, lead, and time Daniel 
could produce better results than any two of them. 
And results were what they must have. Sport came 
second. As Daniel had a true passion for hunting, 
everybody was satisfied and happy. 

In due time other families moved into the neigh- 
bourhood. Among them were the Bryans. Within a 
brief period Daniel met Rebecca Bryan, and within 
briefer period after that they were married. 

The wedding was typical of the day. People came 
from many miles, sometimes in vehicles, but more 
generally on horseback. Some had crude saddles of 
a sort, but many rode quite simply with blanket and 
surcingle, the women sitting behind and clinging tight 
to the men's waists. Everybody was out for a good 
time. The practical joker was in his element. The 
"road," which was most often a narrow trail through 
the mountain forests, they blocked by trees felled 
across it, so that the travellers had either to jump, 
to make long detours, or to do a little axe work. They 
tied vines across at a good height to knock off a hat. 



42 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

That does not sound like much fun, but you must 
remember there were plenty of girls there; and every- 
body could show off, and help them over the logs, 
and disentangle them from the vines, and generally 
skylark about. Sometimes the jokers would make 
a mock ambuscade, and there would be much firing of 
blank charges, and shrieks from the girls who would 
be so scared that thoughtlessly they would cling tight 
to their cavaliers. 

After the wedding ceremony there was a grand 
feast of beef, pork, fowls, venison, wild turkey, bear 
meat, potatoes, cabbages, and corn bread. Then 
they danced square dances and reels on the punch- 
eon floor to the squeaking of a fiddle. 

The young couple moved farther back into the 
wilderness, nearer the mountain, and built them- 
selves their home. The neighbours, of course, helped 
when cooperation was necessary. They called these 
occasions "raisings." After Boone had cut and 
trimmed the logs for his house, then his friends 
gathered with their wives and other womenfolk and 
bringing their horses and axes. They notched the 
logs, laid the mudsills, erected the frame of the 
house, hauling the logs up on skidways to their 
places. The horses strained, the axes rang, the 
yellow chips flew, the men shouted. And over in 
the maple grove the women had fires going and pots 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 43 

bubbling, so that when dinner time came another 
feast was under way, with the squeaky fiddle not far 
off before they turned in under the open sky. In 
this manner the house and the barns and the corn- 
crib went up like magic, so that when these neigh- 
bours, shouting their good-byes, trooped away down 
the forest aisles the Boones had only to chink and 
roof their new habitations before moving in. 

A great deal of frontier work was done in this 
fashion. It was much more eflScient, and loads more 
fun, to get together. There were " log rollings " when 
the trees that had been felled to make the clearing 
were rolled off to the edge of the forest; and "quilt- 
ings" when the women sewed together thousands of 
scraps to make crazy-quilts. When the corn crops 
had all been gathered and housed, they assembled at 
"husking bees." They stripped the husks and flung 
the yellow ears aside to the tune of laughter and 
again that squeaky fiddle. If a girl uncovered a red 
ear of the corn she must be kissed by the nearest 
young man. So it was with much of the similar work. 
Each man did his own job; but also he helped do his 
neighbour's, and his neighbour in turn helped him. 
Tasks that would have been interminable, lonesome, 
and tiresome, thus became pleasant. 

As the years went on the little valley of the Yad- 
kin slowly became settled. The smoke from Boone's 



44 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

cabin was not the only one that rose against the 
mountain. As his neighbours crowded closer it be- 
came necessary to set boundaries and limits to his 
fields. He began to need elbow room. 

Some people have written that Boone was a mis- 
anthrope, hating his fellow-beings and the world. 
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The writ- 
ings of those who knew him are filled with his kind- 
liness, his neighbourliness, his charity and wisdom 
in his dealings with men. But his was the pioneer 
spirit. He was interested in things as long as they 
were under construction; but he lost all interest in 
them when they were finished and ready to be en- 
joyed. "Something hid behind the ranges" was 
always whispering to him. 

And "something hid behind the ranges" was in 
this case no mere figure of speech. All the settle- 
ment of the Atlantic seaboard had been to the east 
of the Alleghanies, and had stopped short when that 
rampart was encountered. Concerning unexplored 
country that lay beyond, the wildest stories were 
told. As one little sample: it was told, and believed, 
that in that land there were snakes with horns on 
the end of their tails, which they used as weapons. 
One of these horns, stuck into a tree, no matter how 
big, blasted it at once! No one knew the truth of 
them, for none could speak at first hand. There 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 45 

were the dark blue mountains, and their skyline lay 
sharp against the sunset, but on what the last rays 
were looking when they sank below this unknown 
world no man could say. 

Out from secret paths occasionally came small 
parties of Indians bent on trade or sightseeing. They 
spoke of noble rivers, deep forests, wide plains, abun- 
dant game. But they spoke of it also, and fiercely, 
as a "dark and bloody ground," that no tribe owned 
or inhabited, but in which all tribes hunted and made 
war; a country of perils, of certain death, or cap- 
tivity that would never end. What hope had the 
white man, no matter how bold and self-reliant, to 
cross the labyrinth of pathless and frowning ranges, 
to thread these great forests, to escape or make head 
against the hordes of fierce beasts and fiercer savages 
that there roamed .^^ Only a very strong expedition 
would seem to have any chance at all; and by what 
means, by what road, could a strong party get there; 
and how maintain itself when arrived.^ The fore- 
most minds of the day realized that there lay the 
country of the future, but the time was not yet. 

Nevertheless there it lay, an ever-present lure to 
the soul of adventure. We can imagine many hardy 
men, like Boone, smoking their after-supper pipes 
before the doors of their cabins, looking upon that 
gilded skyline with longing and speculative eye. 



46 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

It was a theme of never-ending discussion around 
the winter fires. No story concerning it was too wild 
or too absurd. A legend, a formidable legend, grew 
up about it, its dangers, its beauties, the fertility of 
its soil, the brilliance of its birds, the swarms of 
its game, the deadliness of its perils. 

To such a man as Boone this legend could not fail 
to have a strong appeal. The appeal was strength- 
ened not only by the crowding settlement of the 
Yadkin valley, but by the fact that at this time 
the exactions and abuses of the officers of the law be- 
came very oppressive. The governors sent out from 
England to administer the colonies were all of the 
aristocratic class, trained in the traditions of that 
class, fond of show and luxury, and inclined to ap- 
point men of their own ilk for the lesser offices. By 
the time that spirit had filtered down to the outlying 
settlements it had become petty. Fees were charged 
by these lawyers and court officials for the most 
trivial of daily business : one man sued another at the 
slightest provocation, being urged thereto by these 
same officials, who would profit by it; and you may 
be sure the litigation was not permitted to die. The 
settlers, with increasing ease, began to rival each 
other in show and ornament. To a great extent the 
old intimate friendliness of a common danger and a 
common privation shared was giving way to the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 47 

more complicated relationships of society. All this 
irked Boone. He was a man of simple friendliness, 
simple but true justice, a hearty despiser of scheming 
or cunning. And, strangely enough, in spite of his 
long record of warfare later, he was a man of peace; 
preferring, in spite of a sociable nature, solitude to 
the wild wranglings about him. But he was a proper 
pacifist in that he would fight for his own right to be 
peaceful ! 

These considerations, strongly re enforced by his 
adventurous spirit and his love of hunting, were 
working him toward a climax of resolve. The " some- 
thing hid behind the ranges" was calling him louder 
and louder. He might have gone, irresponsibly, at 
any time, for he was bold and enterprising; but he 
was not longing for a mere hunting trip. Somewhere 
in that vast wilderness must be a place where men 
could live again in peace with each other; in the 
simplicity of the early days. But not just yet, in the 
cares of family life and making a living, did the vision 
form to him as of "one ordained by God to open a 
wilderness to a people." 



CHAPTER V 

^T THIS precise moment there drifted into the 
Zjk valley of the Yadkin a man named John 
•^ -^ Finley who had actually been over the 
mountains and had come back to tell the tale! He 
was a bachelor without ties, and he and a number of 
others like him had formed a hunting party and had 
traversed a portion of what is now Kentucky and 
Tennessee. They, like the other wandering hunters 
and trappers of this and other far countries, were 
primarily adventurers, out for new game fields, prac- 
tical men who wanted meat and furs; and they had 
no interest at all in the possibilities of the country 
for settlement. The Indians, ignorant as yet that 
such little advance parties would mean to their 
country what the white man had meant to the 
Atlantic seaboard, disdained to attack them. 

They returned and you may be sure that in every 
cabin, in every crossroads store, their tales and 
descriptions were listened to with the greatest 
eagerness. They had been in a country concerning 
which men's wonder had long been exercised. Before, 
in the language of Judge Marshall, "the country be- 

48 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 49 

yond the Cumberland mountain still appeared to the 
generality of the people of Virginia almost as ob- 
scure and doubtful as America itself to the people of 
Europe before the voyage of Columbus. A country 
there was — of this none could doubt; but whether 
land or water, mountain or plain, fertility or barren- 
ness predominated; whether inhabited by men or 
beasts, or both, or neither, they knew not.*' 

Now Finley and his friends could resolve some of 
these doubts. And you may be certain that Boone 
was one of his most eager listeners. Indeed it is 
related that he took Finley with him to his cabin, and 
there kept him for some months as guest, while each 
evening he listened to the hunter's glowing tales. 

Nevertheless, it was not the custom of these men 
to leap at things rashly. They believed Finley 's stor- 
ies of the richness and attractions of the country and 
the abundance of the game; but they knew also, by 
sad experience, the great power of the Indian. Any 
party of settlers, with the mountains between them- 
selves and the settlements, would have to shift 
entirely for itself; and then would depend for its very 
life on the numbers and ferocity of the savages. They 
knew that while Finley and his party had come 
through, their safety was due to the fact that they 
were the first to cross the mountains and the Indians 
they had encountered had not known what to do. 



50 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

We will discuss later the Indian of that day, but it is 
sufficient to say here that he was not individually 
inclined to be unfriendly. Matters of personal re- 
venge, or matters of tribal policy made him hostile. 
But by now the news that at last the first white men 
had crossed the mountains from the east would have 
spread through all the tribes. The elders and 
the wise men would have heard of it. And these 
elders and wise men, of the most intelligent of our 
Indians, would have had time to think the thing over. 
They could not fail to perceive that a little beginning 
would end inevitably in the settlement of the whole 
country. They had seen that happen many times 
before. So it was extremely unlikely that a second 
party, even of hunters, would be permitted without 
pretty careful scrutiny; while an expedition of set- 
tlers would take the gravest risks. To the Indian 
intelligence the stray hunters and especially the 
traders from the north and northeast were of differ- 
ent portent. 

Nevertheless, in the Boone cabin it was resolved 
that, if possible, a party of men should be formed to 
visit the new land under the guidance of John Finley. 
They were to explore, to spy out the possibilities for 
settlement, to estimate the risks. Then they would 
return; and, if it seemed wise, organize an expedition 
of settlers. Incidentally, they would hunt and trap. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 51 

and the peltries would pay them for their time and 
trouble. Rebecca Boone listened to these plans and 
approved. Her sons were by now old enough to 
take their share of the work; and she was a true fron- 
tiersman's wife, ready to do her part. 

After much discussion four other men were in- 
vited. They were John Stuart, Joseph Holden, 
James Murray, and William Cool; all steady, courage- 
ous men, and graduates of the great school of wood- 
craft we have described. 

They started on the first of May, 1769, selecting 
a date when the weather was most likely to be good. 
Since the routes were unknown, they went afoot in- 
stead of horseback, as was the custom ordinarily. 
** Their dress," says Peck, "was of the description 
usually worn at that period by all forest rangers. 
The outside garment was a hunting shirt, or loose 
open frock, made of dressed deerskins. Leggins or 
drawers of the same material covered the lower ex- 
tremities, to which was appended a pair of moccasins 
for the feet. The cape or collar of the hunting shirt 
and the seams of the leggins were adorned with 
fringes. The undergarments were of coarse cotton." 

They wore leather belts, with the buckles in the 
rear both to avoid glitter and catching in the brush. 
The tomahawk was slung on the right side of the belt. 
The bullet, or "shot," pouch was swung on a strap 



52 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

over the left shoulder and hung on the right side, the 
powder horn immediately above it. The knife was 
in the belt on the left side. Each man carried also 
a small pack containing extras, chiefly powder and 
lead. They had little in the way of bedding, no 
extra clothes, no shelters, almost no food, none of the 
things we take when we think we are "roughing it" 
severely. The wilderness was to be their home, and 
from the wilderness they must take all they needed. 
If it rained, they must contrive a shelter from the 
materials at hand, or else go wet. If they became 
hungry, the wilderness must supply them food. 

They attacked the journey boldly, and were al- 
most at once cursed with bad weather. All day they 
had to travel in the rain, through wet brush that 
soaked them even more thoroughly than mere rain 
could ever do. Near nightfall they made their camp. 
For this they selected a big down-log on a flat space, 
cleared out in front of it, set upright forked poles 
with a cross pole seven or eight feet from the logs; 
laid other poles from the cross pole over to the log: 
on them placed bark or skins or anything handy that 
would shed water, and so became possessed of a 
lean-to shelter that would keep out the rain. The 
big down-log was the back wall, the height of the 
forked poles in front determined the slant of the roof, 
and that was arranged not only best to shed the rain. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 53 

but also most effectively to reflect down the heat 
from the fire. Both in the location of the fire and 
in the building of it they took the greatest pains. 
Camp was always placed in a secluded hollow, or in 
a thicket whence, under the most careful scrutiny, no 
gleam of light could escape. When in imminent 
danger of Indians sometimes no fire at all would be 
made, and the men would lie close to each other 
for the sake of warmth, but as they had almost no 
blankets at all, this was avoided whenever possible. 
The fire was urgently needed, not only for warmth 
and for cooking, but also to dry out daily their sodden 
belongings. From the slanting roof the heat re- 
flected downward. It is astonishing how comfortable 
one can be in these circumstances even in the coldest 
weather and with but a single blanket. 

However, it did not rain all the time. One month 
and seven days after they had left the valley of the 
Yadkin, late in the afternoon, they struggled up the 
last ascents of the formidable mountains and looked 
ahead to the west. The skyline of a hill has ever a 
remarkable fascination: always one is eager to see 
what lies beyond, and almost invariably one hastens 
his steps as he nears the point where he can see. 
Imagine the eagerness of these men who were at last, 
after five weeks of hard travel, to look upon a new 
and strange land! 



54 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

They had come out opposite one of the headwaters 
of the Kentucky River. Immediately at their feet, 
of course, rolled the billows of the lesser ranges and 
of the foothills, but creeping out from that and rising 
to the horizon opposite their eyes lay a rich and beau- 
tiful country of forests and openings, of low hills and 
vales, and a vast level plain. The details were lost in 
the golden mist of evening, but enough could be seen 
to justify Finley's tales. Long they stood, leaning 
on their rifles, ga2dng in a muse of speculation or 
anticipation each after his desires. Perhaps it was 
from this high point that Boone received his inspira- 
tion that he was ordained by God to open an empire 
to a people. 

They camped that night in a ravine that headed 
near by. Early next morning they descended ex- 
citedly to the lower country below. 

What they found exceeded their wildest expecta- 
tions. As hunters they were most of all interested 
in the game. Turkeys were so numerous that 
Boone later described them as being like one vast 
flock through the whole forest. Deer were in herds. 
Elk roamed the woodlands. Bear were, next to deer, 
the most numerous of all. But the buffalo amazed 
them most. As our party descended the mountains 
they became aware of a dull, continuous rumbling 
sound that puzzled them greatly. They found that 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 55 

this sound came from the trampling of innumerable 
buffalo. "We found everywhere abundance of wild 
beasts of all sorts," said Boone himself. "The buffalo 
were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the 
settlements : sometimes we saw hundreds in a drove, 
and the numbers about the salt springs were amaz- 
ing." 

They picked a site on the Red River, built them- 
selves a small rude cabin, and proceeded to hunt and 
explore the country. 

From the first of May until the twenty-second of 
December they roamed without seeing even an in- 
dication of Indians. All this region was claimed by 
Cherokee and Shawanese, but with none too good a 
title. As a significant fact no Indians at all inhabited 
it. Their villages were many days' journey distant, 
and they themselves visited it only on hunting or war 
parties. This fact made it a continual battleground 
when enemies were encountered. Whenever villages 
were near at hand, the Indians had either to keep 
peaceful or to go to war in good earnest; for their 
homes lay open to reprisals. But if those homes were 
so far away as to require a long journey before a 
counter blow could be struck, the smallest parties 
could get up little wars of their own. 

The bales of peltries grew in number. All through 
the summer the hunters lived literally on the fat of 



56 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the land. Kentucky before the days of cultivation 
was as fertile, though in a different way, as she is now. 
The forests were high and beautiful with flowers and 
vines and birds; the canebrakes luxuriated; the 
plains were sweet with clover; the open woods were 
like orchards carpeted with grass. Everywhere the 
game roamed. His companions would have been 
content to hunt close about the little cabin, for 
the game was as abundant there as farther afield, 
but Boone had other things in view besides hunting. 
He wanted to see what the country was like. Always 
in the back of his mind was the thought that some 
day he would be returning with his family, at the 
head of an expedition of settlers. He wanted to 
examine for himself the possibilities. Ever in view 
he kept the requisites of what he sought. For a 
good location in those days he needed to find a gently 
sloping swell of land on which thickly growing cane, 
pawpaws, and clover indicated good soil. The trees 
round about must be abundant enough for building 
purposes, but should stand sparsely enough, and free 
enough from underbrush so that a man could ride 
horseback through them at least at half speed. A 
grove of sugar maples should grow not too far away; 
and a salt lick was desirable. Salt did not come in 
cartons then, but had to be boiled from the water 
of salt springs. An ideal site should have a good 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 57 

limestone spring so located that it could be enclosed 
within the stockade walls; but this was not absolutely 
essential. Many writers wonder why forts were ever 
built without enclosing springs and they point out 
several celebrated instances where the besieged in- 
mates were starved for water. At first thought it 
would seem essential; but these men were thoroughly 
acquainted with the Indian character. An Indian 
siege rarely lasted longer than a day or two at most, 
and ample reservoirs were supposed to be kept filled 
for such emergencies: though sometimes people got 
careless through long immunity and neglected to fill 
them. It was very diflScult to find sites suitable in 
other ways and also possessing such springs. 

In this prolonged wandering they had many ad- 
ventures. One of the most exciting occurred one 
day as they were crossing an open plain and en- 
countered a great horde of buffalo. The animals 
were frightened by something and came thundering 
down in a dense mass directly toward the little 
group of hunters. To the five newcomers there 
seemed to be no escape; but Finley, who knew some- 
thing of these animals, with great coolness shot one 
of the leaders dead. Like a stream about a rock 
the rushing herd divided around the dead buffalo, 
only to close in again as the pressure forced them to- 
gether. But as that did not happen immediately 



58 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

a narrow clear space was left, and into the centre 
of this our hunters immediately advanced. There 
they stood while, with a thunder of hoofs and a 
cloud of dust, the fear-crazy animals swept by. 

The continued absence of any sign of a foe at last 
lulled them to a feeling of suflScient security so that 
they divided into pairs for their hunting trips in- 
stead of all six staying together as heretofore. 
Everything went well until December twenty-second. 
On that date Boone and Stuart were hunting in the 
canebrake country. This was so thickly grown 
that it could be penetrated only by means of the 
buffalo trails; or streets as they were called because 
of their breadth. Some of these streets had been 
used for years and years. This type of country was 
especially adapted to ambuscade, and it is extremely 
probable that Boone and his companion would not 
have ventured into it had they had any intimation 
that Indians ever visited that part of the world. 
However, just as they were surmounting a little 
hill, a large party of Indians rushed on them so 
suddenly that they had no chance even to throw up 
their rifles for a shot. 

It is the universal testimony that no circum- 
stances ever ruffled Boone's temper or judgment. 
He submitted with apparent good humour, and ad- 
vised Stuart to do the same. The whole party 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 59 

started off at a rapid gait through the forest. Boone 
knew the Indian character well. He was perfectly 
aware that only a fearless bearing, an apparent 
contentment with his lot, and complete patience 
would help him. Even in later days, when warfare 
between white and red became embittered, and when 
he himself had acquired reputation with the Indians 
of being a formidable enemy, Boone seemed always 
to command an enormous respect from and influence 
over them. For all their ferocity in war, the In- 
dians of that day and place responded readily to 
fair treatment or generous nature. Boone fought 
Indians all his life, but he never hated Indians. He 
understood their minds thoroughly, possessing the 
rare faculty of being able to take fully their point 
of view and to know what was going on in their 
thoughts. He must, too, have been an actor of 
considerable ability, for in his various captivities he 
never seems to have failed to impress the savages 
with the apparent sincerity of his desire to become 
one of them. That was always his first move 
toward escape; the building up of the idea that he 
was contented with his lot, that he was on the whole 
rather glad to have been captured, that he intended 
to become a member of the tribe and to settle down 
contentedly with them. Somehow, as we shall see, 
he always did manage to avoid death, even when 



60 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the Indians were killing all their other captives; and 
he always did manage eventually to escape. The 
former was probably to a great extent due to the 
placidity, the courage, and the unruflBied benevo- 
lence of his character; the latter to his great patience, 
for he never tried to get away until the time seemed 
ripe. An unsuccessful effort to escape was certain 
death. The Indians looked upon it as a breach of 
hospitality, a bitter offence, that a captive they had 
treated kindly should make such an attempt. 

Therefore Boone, and on his advice Stuart, went 
with their captors cheerfully. So well did he in- 
gratiate himself in every way that the savages were 
fully convinced that he really wanted to become a 
member of their tribe; and promised to adopt him. 
At first guards were set over the white men every 
night, but by the seventh day their suspicions were 
so far lulled that they dispensed with that protec- 
tion. It is evident that this was a hunting party, 
and not a war party out for scalps and prisoners, 
or the white men would have been better guarded. 
They had been picked up in passing. On this 
night the guards for the first time were omitted, 
though Boone and his friend were each made to lie 
down between two Indians. Stuart promptly fell 
asleep, for he was depending on Boone to judge the 
right time. About midnight, when the fires were 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 61 

flickering low, the night at its darkest, and the 
Indians sleeping most soundly after an especial feed 
of roasted buffalo meat, Boone cautiously raised 
himself on his elbow. An Indian stirred; he dropped 
prone again. The second attempt was more for- 
tunate. He touched Stuart, who was instantly 
broad awake. The two men rose by inches; by 
inches moved across the little camp. The Indians 
were lying all about them, men accustomed to 
midnight alarms sleeping "with one eye open," 
alert to spring to wakefulness at the slightest sound. 
The breaking of a twig, even the sudden rustling of a 
leaf, would have been enough to bring them to their 
feet, tomahawk in hand. But the two managed it, 
they succeeded even in regaining their rifles and 
equipment; and once outside the circle of the firelight 
they made their way as rapidly as possible back to 
their camp. There is no record of their being pursued, 
as they would certainly have been had this been a 
war party. Probably their escape was not discovered 
for some time, and it was considered too much trou- 
ble to back track on a long and laborious pursuit. 

But when they reached the cabin they found it 
ransacked and their companions gone. All the pel- 
tries, result of eight months' work, had been stolen. 
Their four companions, including Finley himself, 
were never heard of again. They may have been 



62 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

killed or carried off by the Indians who plundered the 
camp; but if so nobody ever heard of it in later years, 
and as a usual thmg such victories are boasted of by 
the Indians. They may have perished in the wilder- 
ness, attempting to regain civilization. No one 
knows. One account purports to tell of their return 
to civilization; but I have been unable with the 
documents at my command to trace it. It would 
seem that such a return would have brought the 
news of Boone's capture, which does not appear to 
have been known. 

Most men after such an experience would have 
themselves given it up as a bad job; but Boone and 
Stuart, instead of being discouraged, resolved grimly 
to start all over again. They could not afford to 
return empty handed; for in order to make this jour- 
ney they had gone into debt. They built themselves 
a small hut in another and more secret place, and 
patiently set about retrieving their fortunes. 

It might be well to tell you here that the main ob- 
ject of their hunt in the past summer had been deer- 
skins. The pelts of the fur-bearing creatures are not 
good at that time of year, but buckskin is always 
in season. Roughly dressed deerskins were worth 
about a dollar each and a horse could carry about a 
hundred of them. You must remember a dollar 
then was worth many of our dollars now. In winter 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 63 

beaver and other pelts could be had, worth from three 
to five dollars. Buffalo hides, bearskins, and elk hides 
were fine for bedding and warmth in camp, but they 
were too bulky to carry long distances. The deer 
season was over, but beavers and others were coming 
in, and the hunters could now profitably turn them- 
selves into trappers. 

Their outlook was none too rosy. Ammunition 
was by now getting very low. The Indians had at 
last shown themselves, and were known to be abroad 
in the country. Fortunately the fur-bearing animals 
they were now to take would be captured by traps, 
so they could save their precious powder and lead 
for food and defence. 

In January Boone saw in the distance two men rid- 
ing through the woods. He hastily concealed himself. 

"Hullo, strangers, who are you.^" he called at 
length, as he saw they were but two. 

"White men and friends," hastily replied the new- 
comers. 

They approached and Daniel, to his great joy, 
found that one of them was a younger brother. Squire 
Boone. Squire, in company with another adventur- 
ous spirit named Neeley, had started out to find his 
brother, and had succeeded ! 

This was at once an admirable piece of woods- 
manship and extraordinary luck. He had not the 



64 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

slightest idea of where to look: he just started out; 
and his journey was just as bold, just as exploratory, 
just as indicative of highly specialized education as 
that of his older brother nearly a year before. In- 
deed it was even more courageous, for here were but 
two men where had been six. Many writers have ex- 
pressed the greatest wonder that the two parties en- 
countered at all, pointing out that the wilderness is 
not supplied with a guide book, and that there was 
no one from whom to enquire. It was indeed good 
luck, and went far to justify Boone's faith in his 
destiny; but to a woodsman it is not as extraordinary 
as would at first appear. Squire undoubtedly knew 
where his brother had started, and perhaps his route 
for a certain distance. In a mountain district the 
"lay of the land" is generally so strongly marked 
that the best route and the best passes are inevitable 
to the eye of a trained man however confusing the 
choice might be to one less experienced. So Squire, 
having started right, was almost forced by the 
common sense of the situation to follow the route 
taken by Daniel. It is also extremely probable that 
the latter had marked his trail for future reference, 
though it is not likely that he blazed it plainly to his 
front door. That would be asking for trouble, and 
fairly inviting the foe to visit him. 

Squire brought with him ample ammunition and 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 65 

supplies. The four men, delighted with this change 
in luck, took up their hunting again. Daniel and 
Stuart held together, while Squire and Neeley struck 
partnership. The pairs would often go on expedi- 
tions lasting for several days at a time, visiting wide- 
flung trapping routes, or exploring new country, 
which was as you may imagine a never-failing source 
of delight. During these expeditions the two men 
in turn would often separate for the day, meeting at 
sundown at some agreed spot for the night's camp. 
One night Stuart did not appear. Boone, in alarm, 
searched the forest. He found at length traces of a 
fire where his friend had spent the night but no 
sign or trail of the man himself. Five years later he 
came across Stuart's bones in a hollow sycamore tree. 
He knew them for Stuart's because of the name cut 
on the powder horn. What happened has always 
remained a mystery. From the fact that the bones 
were in a hollow tree, it is likely that he had been 
wounded badly enough to die while in hiding. 

At any rate, this mysterious disappearance fright- 
ened Neeley so badly that he decided he would start 
for home, which he did. He would have done better 
to have taken a chance with the brothers, for he never 
was heard of again: unless an unidentified skeleton 
found years later may have been his. 

Daniel and Squire Boone settled down to mind their 



66 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

traps and gain enough pelts to pay their debts. They 
took every precaution against the Indians; and suc- 
cessfully. A new cabin was constructed in a more 
secret place. All cooking was done at night, so no 
smoke was ever visible. The trail to the hiding- 
place was carefully blinded by all the devices known 
to them. For example, part of the approach was 
made by walking in the stream; on the ground the 
trail often turned at angles; or doubled back on it- 
self so that apparently it led nowhere. \Mien possible 
it was taken over rocks or smooth down trees that 
would show no trace. One device was to swing on the 
tough hanging wild-grape vines. Always, when any- 
where near home, the footprints were painstakingly 
covered with leaves. This was a lot of trouble, but 
these men were protecting their Hves, and no trouble 
is too much for that. 

When spring came they had a good store of pelts, 
but again ammunition was running low. By the 
flickering little fire, carefully guarded and screened, 
they held many anxious consultations. They might 
both return, and as Daniel missed keenly his wife and 
children, this appealed to him most. But, on the 
other hand, he had gone deeply in debt to make 
possible this expedition. Furthermore, it was ex- 
tremely desirable, if later he was to settle in the new 
land, that he explore it farther afield; something he 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 67 

had been unable to do thoroughly while the main job 
was hunting. So finally it was agreed that Squire 
should return to the settlements for supplies, and 
to sell the skins, while Daniel should remain. On 
May first Squire started. The distance was five 
hundred miles of howling, dangerous, uncharted 
wilderness, which he was to traverse alone and bur- 
dened with the handicap of laden pack horses. It is 
hard to tell whose courage most to admire: that of 
the man who stayed, or that of the man who went. 



CHAPTER VI 

I EFT thus alone Boone acknowledges quite 
simply that he "passed a few days uncom- 
fortably." "I confess," said he, "I never 
before was under greater necessity of exercising 
philosophy and fortitude. A few days I passed un- 
comfortably. The idea of a beloved wife and family, 
and their anxiety upon the account of my absence and 
exposed situation, made a sensible impression on my 
heart." In another place he says that he was "one 
by myself — without bread, salt, or sugar — without 
company of any fellow creatures, or even a horse or 
dog." 

But he soon shook off this depression. Boone was 
a profound lover of nature and of her beauties. He 
"undertook a turn through the country" as his 
stilted amanuensis makes him express it, "and the 
diversities and beauties of nature I met expelled 
every gloomy and vexatious thought." As ammuni- 
tion was now scarce and so, except for food, hunting 
was impossible, he spent his time in exploring, "for 
to look and for to see." There was no object in 
staying near the little cabin; indeed there was every 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 69 

reason for avoiding it. Alone in a hostile country, 
where news of the presence of these white men had by 
now spread to all the tribes, he must take extra pre- 
caution against the Indians. He changed his habi- 
tation frequently, living in camps of bark or boughs, 
or in caves. Even in such temporary quarters he 
rarely ventured to sleep, retiring some distance into 
the thickets and dense canebrakes unless the weather 
was very bad. It was a hard and dangerous life, 
but it had its compensations in the thrill of solitary 
exploration, the dangers avoided, and the beauty of 
the new country whose features were thus discovered. 
Boone wandered far over the thickly forested hills 
and valleys, the wide plains. He found and followed 
watercourses; he climbed high hills to look abroad; he 
revelled in the flowers; in the stately and beautiful 
trees in their great variety — the sugar maples, the 
honey locusts, the catalpas, the pawpaws, all the 
hardwoods; he visited the mineral springs that have 
since become famous, Big Lick, Blue Lick, Big Bone 
Lick, where he must have looked with interest and awe 
on the remains of mastodons down and perished cen- 
turies before when they had come to the licks for salt. 
During these months he gained the intimate first-hand 
knowledge of the whole country which later was to 
prove so valuable to himself and to others. 

The only person who could have told all the details 



70 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

of this most fascinating solitary sojourn in a new land 
was, naturally, Daniel Boone himself; and unfor- 
tunately he has not told much. He was of few words. 
Seven years later a man named Filson purported to 
put down "in Boone's own words" an account of the 
Hunter's life; but the words were Filson's, and Filson 
was highflown, not to say elegant. The following is 
his idea of how Boone would express himself : 

"Just at the close of day the gentle gales retired and 
left the place to the disposal of a profound calm. 
Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf." 

Filson had the advantage of getting the facts from 
our Hunter, no matter how fantastically he dressed 
them; only unfortunately Boone had a habit of pass- 
ing casually over a five-hundred-mile journey full of 
dangers, difficulties, and escapes with the statement, 
"I returned safe to my own habitation." So of the 
many things it would be interesting to know of this 
exploration we have very little. We can never know 
how many times Boone encountered Indians, nor how 
many times he managed to elude them. We know 
that once he met a large band near the Ohio River, 
but managed to keep out of sight. On another oc- 
casion he came upon an Indian fishing from the trunk 
of a fallen tree. Nobody knows the circumstances; 
but Boone, in telling of this incident later, would re- 
mark gravely but with a twinkle deep in his eyes: 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 71 

"While I was looking at the fellow he tumbled into 
the river and I saw him no more." Boone was at 
that moment, in all likelihood, ** looking at the fellow'* 
over the sights of his rifle! Again, while he was 
exploring a new and strange river, he found himself 
suddenly faced on three sides by his enemies. The 
fourth side was a precipice sixty feet high. Without 
a moment's hesitation Boone made the leap, landed 
in the top of a sugar maple, slid down the trunk, 
ducked down below the cut bank of the river, ran 
along the httle beach there, plunged into the river, 
swam across, and so escaped from the astounded 
Indians. It is to be noted, as additional evidence of 
his coolness in danger, that he retained throughout 
his grasp of his five-foot eleven-pound rifle. He says 
that during his absence his cabin was several times 
visited and ransacked. 

About the time he had reason to expect the return 
of his brother he came in from his wanderings. The 
latter part of July Squire Boone appeared, having for 
the third time accomplished the difficult journey 
undetected. His arrival was most cheering. In the 
first place, he brought news of Daniel's family and 
that all was going well ; in the second place, he reported 
that he had made a favourable sale of the furs, and had 
paid off the whole debt; and in the third place he had 
brought two pack horses laden with supplies. 



72 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

The brothers opened another season against the 
deer. It was highly successful, so that in a very 
short time Squire was able to pack up the horses and 
once more head out for the settlements full laden. 
This time he made the round trip in two months, 
again without molestation. In the science of wood- 
craft he seems to have been quite the equal of his 
more famous brother. By December he was back 
again, and the two entered upon another winter of 
combined trapping and exploration. They did more 
of the latter this winter. They had horses; and they 
were now fully determined to bring settlement to 
this beautiful land. Boone says himself that he 
"esteemed it a second Paradise." It was in March 
of this winter that they finally determined the site 
of their future home on the Kentucky River. Shortly 
after, convinced that at last he knew all that was 
necessary to know, Boone turned his face homeward. 



CHAPTER VII 

BOONE'S return was like the return of Colum- 
bus. The legendary land over the mountains 
had been entered by someone people knew. 
He could tell what lay behind the ranges. He had 
not only visited that land, but he had maintained 
himself successfully in it for two years. The im- 
penetrable mountains had been crossed, not once, 
but several times, so that it might fairly be said that 
a route had been established. From being a dream, 
that strange far country had become a possibility. 
Men wanted to know about it in detail. Boone's 
statements and opinions were eagerly sought and 
listened to, and his opinions were weighed. 

But when it came to action there was a good deal 
to be thought of. The Boones had lived there and 
returned, to be sure: but where were Finley and Cool 
and Holden and Murray and Stuart of the original 
six.f^ And where was the man who had started out 
with Squire Boone? It was one thing to go into a 
country as a hunter, lightly equipped, mobile. Such 
was able to dodge and skulk and hide; and in any case 
was never the object of any determined effort by the 

73 



74 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

Indians. If he fell in their way, he was likely to lose 
his scalp; but they would not bother especially to 
hunt for him. But settlement was a different matter. 
It offered a definite point of attack. And further- 
more the Indians knew very well from experience 
that settlement meant that sooner or later they would 
be crowded on, and they were on that account hostile 
to anything like permanent occupation. No matter 
how attractive the picture or how much a brand-new 
game country appealed to these bold men, there was 
a lot to be thought of before one sold his farm and 
ventured. 

Two years passed before Boone made the move. 
In that period, however, he several times visited 
Kentucky, alone or in company with two or three 
companions, partly for the purpose of further ex- 
ploration, but mainly to enjoy his favourite sport of 
hunting. Other parties of hunters also went in. 
Many of these marked with their tomahawks possible 
farm sites. One party, called the Long Hunters, 
were just making camp for the night when they 
heard a "singular noise proceeding from a considerable 
distance in the forest." The leader told his man to 
keep perfectly still and he himself sneaked carefully 
from one tree to another toward this "singular noise." 
He was thunderstruck to find "a man bareheaded, 
stretched flat on his back on a deerskin spread on 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 75 

the ground, singing merrily at the top of his voice." It 
was Daniel Boone who was whiling away the time 
waiting for his brother, Squire. The report does not 
seem to be a very high testimony for Daniel's singing ! 

He and his companions had many interesting ad- 
ventures in this free gypsy ing around. There was 
no formal Indian war on, but in the "dark and 
bloody ground" every man's hand was against every 
other's. As we have said before, there were no 
Indian settlements in Kentucky; but there were 
swarms of hunters and raiders. The villages were 
all at a distance. There was no need, therefore, to 
conciliate the whites, as they had to do when the 
villages were near enough to suffer retaliation. On 
the other hand, the Indians could never carry on a 
very long war at a time because they were so far from 
their base, which made it easier for the pioneers. 

In this situation it happened that two white hunters 
had their camps a few miles apart, but without 
knowing it. One day they caught sight of one 
another, and promptly sprang behind trees. In the 
usual fashion of Indian combat they advanced, dart- 
ing from tree to tree, trying to get a shot, but trying 
equally not to expose themselves. This went on for 
about three hours with neither man getting the 
advantage. They were equally skilful at this fasci- 
nating game that meant life or death. Every strata- 



76 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

gem known was used to draw the other man's fire 
without too much danger of getting hit. Whoever 
shot first and missed was of course at a big disad- 
vantage. Before he could reload his flint lock the 
other man would be upon him. At length one be- 
came impatient over this long-drawn, futile ma- 
noeuvring. 

" Come out of that, you 'tarnal redskin ! " he shouted. 

"Redskin yourself!" retorted the other. 

And then they had a good laugh and joined forces; 
for they each agreed they had never before met any 
one so skilful at "Injun fighting." 

Every precaution was always taken against sur- 
prise, yet in the dense forests, and in unusual con- 
ditions of wind and weather, surprises would happen. 
One day Boone and his small party of hunters were 
eating lunch when suddenly about fifty feet away 
appeared a large party of Indians. Both sides were 
equally surprised here, and neither wanted to start 
anything. With an assumption of indifference, and 
as if that was what they had intended right along, 
the Indians squatted down and began to eat their 
lunch. There the two parties sat, eyeing each other, 
neither wanting to make the first move. Finally 
Boone arose and sauntered over, picking a bone. He 
greeted the Indians, who answered cautiously. Then 
he asked to look at a curious knife one of the Indians 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 77 

was using. The warrior handed it over. With the 
intent black eyes focussed upon his every movement 
Boone apparently swallowed the knife, produced it 
from his shirt, and handed it back. With a howl of 
dismay the Indian threw it as far as he could into the 
brush, and the whole party disappeared. 

Another time the situation was reversed. A small 
party of Indians met a larger party of whites. Before 
the latter could fire the Indians began to cut up the 
most extraordinary monkeyshines, running in circles, 
crawling about on their hands and knees, hopping 
fantastically about, standing on their heads. So 
imbecile was this unexpected performance that the 
white men stared at them bung-eyed in astonishment. 
And before they could recover their wits, the Indians 
one by one had faded away. 

Boone had the great gift of patience. Two years 
he had spent in his almost solitary explorations, and 
now again he was willing to wait. There is no use 
in rushing things to failure. Willing to take the 
most terrible chances when it seemed necessary, he 
believed in having things as near right as possible 
before he started any big project. It would be all 
well enough to take his family in and establish it; 
but defence, companionship, and above all the ful- 
filment of his dream demanded that others should 
accompany and follow him. So patiently he made 



78 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

his calm recital over and over, forming public senti- 
ment until at last in September, three years before 
the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Daniel and 
Squire Boone and their families left their old home. 
Farther along toward the mountains they were 
joined by five other families. The party was now a 
strong one. There were forty men, well armed. 

They had with them the materials for permanent 
settlement — pack horses, cattle, milk cows for the 
children, swine, seeds, the simple household utensils 
of that time, including now full-sized axes instead of 
the tomahawks the explorers had used. For bedding 
they carried blankets and quilts where the hunters 
had been content with skins. To be sure this does 
not seem like great luxury, especially when we con- 
sider that wooden plates and platters and gourd cups 
were in exclusive use on the table. The hunters of 
the families used their hunting knives, while the rest 
of the family had one or at most two knives among 
them. The very well-to-do might own, as a matter 
of great pride, a few pewter dishes and spoons; but 
these were unusual. There were always a few iron 
cooking kettles. Beyond that the necessities and 
luxuries of life were to be fashioned in the wilderness 
from the original materials. 

The journey began propitiously under the direction 
of the Boones. Squire had been over the road so 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 79 

often that he knew it every foot, where the best 
camping places were, and how long each day's journey 
should be. All went well until they were well into 
the mountains and were actually approaching the gap. 

Here the party went into camp to await the arrival 
of still others who had agreed to meet them at this 
point : some forty men who had decided to go without 
their families for the time being, and a man named 
Russell. While waiting Boone sent his eldest son> 
James, a boy of sixteen, with two men and some pack 
horses to notify Russell and to get some flour and 
farming tools that had been promised. They made 
the journey safely, and were returning laden, ac- 
companied by Russell's son, two of Russell's negro 
slaves, and two or three white workmen. Somehow 
they either missed their way, or were belated, and 
went into camp for the night only about three miles 
from the main party. At daybreak they were fired 
into by a Shawnee war party and all were killed on 
the spot except one of the white labourers and a negro, 
who managed to escape. Boone hearing the firing 
galloped up with his men; but too late. 

This tragedy not only threw the little party into the 
profoundest grief for those who had been killed, but 
it also gave pause to the whole enterprise. There 
had been no expectation of Indian hostility on this 
side of the mountains. This might be merely a 



80 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

chance raiding party of a few irresponsible braves, of 
course; but, on the other hand, it might be intended as 
a warning that immigration of settlers would not be 
tolerated. Indians were no fools. Except in mo- 
ments of drunkenness or ungovernable anger, they 
always treated well the traders, of whatever nation- 
ahty, who came among them. Often, as we have 
seen, they even half tolerated the stray hunters who 
pushed out in advance of exploration. But on settle- 
ment they were apt to look with suspicion, or even 
with hostility. 

It must be remembered that this venture was a 
little different from any of the pioneering that had 
gone before. Heretofore the frontier had been ex- 
tended by somebody's going to live just a little farther 
out than anybody else, but still keeping in touch. 
It was a slow growth outward. But here these 
settlers were pushing boldly out to form an island 
entirely surrounded by savagery. 

So these few men thought that if the Indians had 
made up their minds to resist, it would be mad folly 
to cut themselves away from all support. What 
could forty do against thousands .^^ In spite of Boone's 
protests it was decided to abandon the expedition. 
They were not cowards, lightly turned aside by the 
first opposition, but they considered the time not 
propitious. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 81 

Some of them returned to whence they had come; 
but the majority, Boone among them, having sold 
their old farms, were unwilling to turn back. So 
they settled in the Clinch Valley, near where they had 
stopped, and there made themselves homes. 



CHAPTER VIII 

WE ARE now in our story face to face with 
the Indians, as was Boone. Perhaps it 
might be well to say a few words about 
them, so that we can have a clearer idea of the long 
series of fights that are now to follow. 

There are two schools of opinion about the Indian, 
as there are two schools about the accuracy of the 
flint-lock rifle: and, as in that case, the truth lies 
somewhere between them. One school paints him 
as a fiend incarnate, without a single redeeming fea- 
ture, a wild beast. That, it must be confessed, was 
the view held by perhaps a majority of the borderers. 
The other school depicts him as the "noble redman" 
possessed of all the primitive virtues; despoiled of his 
ancient heritage; cheated and robbed and made 
vicious by the injustice of the whites; a lofty and 
pathetic figure. There is truth in both pictures: 
and there is falsity. 

You must remember, to start with, that the Indians 
of those days must not be judged by the Indians we 
know now. They were of a different and in many 
respects higher stock than the plains Indians we are 

82 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 83 

most apt to see. In addition, they were living their 
own Hfe in their own country, and so possessed 
faculties in full exercise. In a hundred and fifty 
years of a different kind of existence the Indian will 
change mentally and physically as fast as, or faster 
than, the white, and we all know the difference even 
two generations will make in our foreign immigrants. 
So first of all, consider the Indian of Boone's time as 
a very intelligent person, with a high sense of tra- 
dition, living a life that was fitted to him, and there- 
fore developing to a high point of his capabilities. 
Since he had to make his own living and protect 
himself he was keen and sharp intellectually; so that 
his great men were indeed great men with judgment 
well developed. There were certain ideals he held 
to very rigidly. He had a high sense of his personal 
integrity, so that he would rather die — and often 
did — than smirch his honour in any way. Of course 
his idea of what was honourable might differ in some 
respects from ours, but such as it was he held to it a 
lot more consistently than we are apt to do, and 
would sacrifice to it more unhesitatingly than most of 
us. Also it must be confessed that most of his points 
of honour were admirable — courage, endurance of 
pain, generosity, loyalty to friendship, faithfulness to 
a trust once undertaken are all pretty good qualities. 
They are not bad ideals for us to uphold. 



84 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

Nobody ever really doubted an Indian's courage, 
though it was customary to speak of the "cowardly 
skulking savage." It was part of the settled system 
of tactics in Indian warfare never to suffer undue loss. 
War to them meant inflicting loss on the other fellow, 
not the winning of what we call victory. With prac- 
tically an unbroken forest between the Atlantic 
Coast and the Mississippi River it could not seem 
vastly important to them whether they held or 
gained any certain point in that forest or not. But 
in hand-to-hand combat or in the higher courage that 
barehanded meets danger unruffled the Indian must 
command respect. With us a coward is looked down 
upon; among those Indians he was quite apt to be 
eliminated. The celebrated chief Cornstalk is said 
to have tomahawked those of his own men who showed 
the slightest signs of flinching. 

The endurance of pain, and incidentally of dis- 
comfort, was with them a religion. Early in life 
the children were practised in hardships. At eight 
years a child was made to fast a half day at a time; at 
twelve a whole day; at eighteen he was placed in a 
camp some miles from his village and fasted as long 
as he could hold out without absolutely perishing. 
When he had stood all of that he could, he was 
plunged into cold water. This was by way of prac- 
tice. It was a point of honour never to show signs of 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 85 

suffering, so that people began to think Indians 
actually did not suffer; but their nervous systems were 
much the same as ours. When captured the tortures 
became a contest between the enemies: one to elicit 
some sign of pain, and the other to endure. It is 
many times on record that a captive, while under- 
going tortures so exquisite that it is useless to harrow 
your imaginations with an account of them, never- 
theless laughed at his captors, reviling them as rank 
amateurs, and informing them that if any of them 
ever got caught by his tribe they would learn how 
to do it. One young man, after some hours of tor- 
ment, informed his tormentors that if they would 
bring him certain materials he would show them some 
tortures worth while. They did so; and he demon- 
strated on his own body ! 

In their generosity they were whole hearted. It 
was literally a fact that they "shared their last 
crust, " not once and as a special deed of beneficence, 
but always and as a matter of course. If a visitor 
in any of their villages happened to enter one of their 
dwellings, he was at once offered food, the best that 
dwelling possessed. To refuse it or not to offer it 
was equally insulting. This was done even though 
the house might be literally starving and the visitor 
fresh from a banquet. On the march also the 
proverbial "last crust" was always shared. The 



86 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

testimony of captives, otherwise roughly treated, is 
that their captors divided scrupulously the scanty 
provisions and that the prisoners always received 
their full shares. Colonel James Smith, who was cap- 
tured by the Dela wares, tells of this: "If any of the 
town folks would go to the same house several times 
in one day," he writes, "he would be invited to eat 
of the best; and with them it is bad manners to re- 
fuse to eat when it is offered. At this time hominy, 
plentifully mixed with bear's oil and sugar, or dried 
venison, bear's oil, and sugar is what they offer to 
everyone who comes in any time of the day; and so 
they go on until their sugar, bear's oil, and venison are 
all gone, and then they have to eat hominy by itself 
without bread, salt, or anything else; yet still they 
invite everyone that comes in to eat while they 
have anything; but if they can in truth only say 
we have got nothing to eat, this is accepted as an 
honourable apology." Another incident narrated by 
Smith gives an excellent example of how seriously this 
type of Indian took his obligations. He was on an 
expedition with his friend, Tontileaugo; himself with 
a horse, the Indian with a canoe. On account of a 
high wind they encamped for some days near the 
shore of a lake. Tontileaugo went to hunt, leaving 
Smith to keep camp. "When he was gone," Smith 
records, "a Wyandot came to our camp. I gave him 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 87 

a shoulder of venison which I had by the fire well 
roasted, and he received it gladly: told me he was 
hungry, and thanked me for my kindness. When 
Tontileaugo came home I told him that a Wyandot 
had been at camp, and that I gave him a shoulder of 
roasted venison. He said that was very well, 'and 
I suppose you gave him also sugar and bear's oil to 
eat with his venison.' I told him I did not as the 
sugar and bear's oil were down in the canoe, I did 
not go for it. He replied, *You have behaved just 
like a Dutchman. Do you not know that when 
strangers come to our camp we ought always to give 
them the best we have.^^' I acknowledged that I 
was wrong. He said that he could excuse this, as I 
was but young: but I must learn to behave like a 
warrior, and do great things." 

Loyalty was another of their virtues that was 
developed consistently to a very high point. The 
books are full of stories wherein an Indian friend of a 
white man has undergone great difficulty and danger 
to carry warning or safety to his pal among the 
whites. There have even been instances where the 
carrying of that warning meant certain death. As 
to faithfulness to the given word, that is a trait of the 
wild Indians to this day. Twenty-odd years ago, 
in the Hudson Bay country, I found that the post 
keepers were accustomed to extend credit for all sorts 



88 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

of supplies to quite large amounts. The Indians 
would then disappear into the forest and be lost to 
view for a year. I asked the Factor whether he did 
not lose considerable sums by this loose way of 
doing business; but he assured me that in all his 
experience he had known of but one Indian defaulter. 
Sometimes in a bad season the Indian might not 
come back the next year, but sooner or later he re- 
turned and paid his debt. 

The Indians also held strictly to their treaties as 
far as they were able to do so. There were always 
two factors working against any complete carrying 
out of tribal as contrasted with personal agreements: 
one was drink, and the other was the fact that the 
authority of the chiefs who made the agreements was 
limited. It was literally true that at times they 
"could not control their young men"; and it is literally 
true that each wurrior thought of himself first as an 
independent individual and only second as a respon- 
sible member of a community. The chiefs might 
make a peace which all would observe except a few 
headstrong young men; but a raid by those few 
was quite enough. Again the chiefs might prom- 
ise safe-conduct to the inhabitants of a fort sur- 
rendering, but in some fashion the Indians might 
get access to rum and a massacre would follow. 
For more than any other human creature liquor 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 89 

seems to change the Indian. He is totally insane 
when drunk. 

So well did they themselves know this that when 
serious deliberations were on they banished the rum 
pannikin. Their councils were formal, and they 
never made decisions until all sides were heard; and 
then not until twenty-four hours had passed for 
deliberation. 

They were good tacticians in their own kind of 
warfare. Their movements were intelligent and 
wonderfully carried out, especially considering the 
thick cover and the difficulties of keeping in touch 
with each other. The various manoeuvres were com- 
manded by various sorts of whoops. Each man 
fought for himself his individual fight; and yet the 
sum total of all these individual fights was somehow 
handled as a unit. And they were very effective 
warriors. The white man in battle won a number 
of "victories," and suffered some crushing de- 
feats, but many of the victories were at heavy 
cost and because, as we have seen, the Indian meas- 
ured success not by ground gained or held, but by 
loss inflicted. It is not generally known that at 
every battle of any importance except that of Point 
Pleasant the whites greatly outnumbered the Indians. 
This was especially true at what have been called 
decisive battles — Bushy Run where Bouquet by 



90 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

clever strategy gained the day, but over inferior 
numbers, and only after a bitter struggle wherein he 
lost four times as many men; or Anthony Wayne's 
final engagement, where he outnumbered the Indians 
three to one. The losses were nearly always corres- 
pondingly disproportionate. Braddock's and Grant's 
regulars, without knowledge of Indian warfare, are 
estimated to have slain about one Indian for every 
hundred of themselves who fell! Naturally when 
the whites were skilled backwoodsmen this proportion 
fell off; but rarely — in spite of boastful accounts of 
the participants — were losses equal. Roosevelt says 
in his "Winning the West": 

"In Braddock's war the borderers are estimated 
to have suffered a loss of fifty souls for every Indian 
slain; in Pontiac's war they had learned to defend 
themselves better and the ratio was probably as ten 
to one; whereas in this war, if we consider only males 
of fighting age, it is probable that a good deal more 
than half as many Indians as whites were killed." 
This was because of two things : the white man hated 
to run away in any circumstances, while the Indian 
would just as soon run away as not if there was 
anything to be gained by it; and the average white 
man could never quite equal the average Indian in 
woodcraft. Boone and such men as Kenton, Wetzel, 
Brady, McCulloch, and Mansker, could beat the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 91 

Indian at his own game; but they were the exceptions. 
We will tell more about that when we get to the 
great wars. At present we are merely illustrating 
Indian intelligence and effectiveness in their sort of 
contest. 

But there were four major traits in the otherwise 
most admirable and human character of the redman, 
and a number of minor faults that made all the 
trouble. 

The major traits were cruelty, love of liquor, a 
capacity for hatred and revenge that equalled their 
capacity for friendship and loyalty, and improvidence. 
Their minor faults were an inability to do long-con- 
tinued team work, a touchy pride, ungovernable rages. 

Cruelty was partly born in them and partly the 
result of the training in bearing hardship and pain. 
If you have schooled yourself to pay no attention to 
a cut finger you have little patience with the fellow 
who bellows and raises a big fuss over it. Extend 
that idea and you will see what I mean. The fact 
remains that the Indian was inconceivably cruel, 
not only to his enemies, but to his domestic animals. 
Children were from the earliest years present at the 
tortures and taught to take part in them. It was 
part of a warrior's education. Like all children 
everywhere they carried over this business of life 
into their play. They played prisoner; they played 



92 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

torture; and often they used some unfortunate animal 
as a toy to give reality to the game. The result was 
inevitable: a cruelty for cruelty's sake that has been 
equalled only by the Holy Inquisition of the Middle 
Ages. Roosevelt says: 

"Any one who has ever been in an encampment of 
wild Indians, and has had the misfortune to witness 
the delight the children take in torturing little ani- 
mals will admit that the Indian's love of cruelty 
for cruelty's sake cannot possibly be exaggerated. 
The young are so trained that when old they shall 
find their keenest pleasure in inflicting pain in its 
most appalling form. Among the most brutal 
white borderers a man would be instantly lynched if 
he practised on any creature the fiendish torture 
which in an Indian camp either attracts no notice at 
all, or else excites merely laughter." 

Thus cruelty became, you must remember, not a 
result of individual evil-mindedness or malice. When 
an Indian was cruel it was rarely in the personally 
malevolent fashion of a small boy tin-canning a dog: 
but it was because that was one of his racial char- 
acteristics. Outside his rages and enemies, or those 
who might become enemies, he was particularly 
warm-hearted. We have seen examples of his gen- 
erosity and loyalty. In his tribal relations he was a 
merry and warm-hearted person. He rarely whipped 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 93 

his children, of whom he was very fond. If they 
must be punished he did it by ducking them under 
water. Colonel Smith, in mentioning this, remarks 
quaintly: "As might be expected, their children are 
more obedient in winter than in summer!" Never- 
theless, a deep ingrained racial cruelty is one of the 
Indian characteristics; and was a powerful factor, 
when the scales of Eternal Justice were poised, in 
bringing about his elimination from the land. For 
however little it may be any one person's fault, if 
fault there be, it must have its consequence. To 
demonstrate responsibility by examples, both great 
and small, is possibly one reason our world exists. 

An amazing illustration of this complete indiffer- 
ence to the other fellow's feelings in the matter is 
supplied by a contemporary account of a captivity 
among the Delawares. This man's companions were 
killed from ambush and he was seized. 

"They then set off and ran at a smart pace for 
about fifteen miles, and that night we slept without 
fire. The next morning they divided the last of 
their provisions and gave me an equal share, which 
was about two or three ounces of mouldy biscuit: 
this and a young ground hog, about as large as a 
rabbit, roasted, and also equally divided, was all the 
provision we had until we came to the Loyal Hamm, 
which was about fifty miles." On arrival at the 



94 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

Indian village, however, the Indians ran out in great 
numbers "stripped naked, excepting breech clouts, 
and painted in the most hideous manner, of various 
colours. As they approached, they formed them- 
selves into two long ranks. I was told by an Indian 
that could speak English that I must run betwixt 
these ranks and that they would flog me all the way 
as I ran. I started to the race with all the resolution 
and vigour I was capable of exerting, found that it 
was as I had been told, for I was flogged the whole 
way. When I got near the end of the lines I was 
struck with something that appeared to me a stick, 
or the handle of a tomahawk, which caused me to 
fall to the ground. On my recovering my senses 
I endeavoured to renew my race; but as I arose 
someone cast sand in my eyes, which blinded me so 
I could not see where to run. They continued beat- 
ing me most intolerably, until I was at length in- 
sensible; but before I lost my senses I remember my 
wishing them to strike the fatal blow for I thought 
they intended killing me." 

The Indians then took him to Fort DuQuesne and 
put him under the care of a French surgeon. It took 
him some time to recover; then the Indians re- 
claimed him and ever after, for the four years of his 
captivity, treated him with the greatest affection, 
as one of themselves. Our hero enquired of the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 95 

Indian who spoke English, "a man of considerable 
understanding. I asked him if I had done anything 
that had offended the Indians, which caused them 
to treat me so unmercifully. He said no; it was only 
an old custom the Indians had, and that it was like 
*how do you do'." 

When this innate and everyday and thoughtless 
cruelty was carried into border warfare and used by 
the savages against men, women, and children in- 
discriminately, it aroused a vindictive hatred and 
thirst for revenge that had behind it a strong driving 
force. Of that more later. 

The second great fault, that of drunkenness, was 
the first cause of the Indian's undoing. In the old 
phrase, "he could not carry his liquor well." In- 
deed rum made of him a different man, an irrespon- 
sible, insane creature who was likely to do almost 
anything. The Indians recognized this themselves. 
Many travellers and traders describe to us the or- 
derly fashion in which the savages used to arrange 
for a big drunk; depositing all their arms in a safe 
place; detailing certain members of the band whose 
duty it was to keep sober for the purpose of pre- 
venting deadly fights, to take care of the helplessly 
intoxicated, and to see that none of the maddened 
participants managed to get hold of weapons. When 
all these matters were arranged, the lucky ones who 



96 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

had the privilege proceeded deHberately to get 
drunk. These sprees were terrible, lasting sometimes 
two or three days; and it was a rare thing that, in 
spite of those delegated to stay sober, someone was 
not badly injured or killed. All the savage passions 
seemed to be unleashed by the liquor. They shrieked 
and yelled and danced and rolled on the ground; 
they staggered away aimlessly, and woe to the man 
who stood in their way! The great massacres, as 
at Fort William Henry, were not due to any pre- 
arranged plan — quite the contrary — but to the fact 
that the savages, armed, got access to the liquor 
barrels. The Indians themselves realized thoroughly 
all these facts. One of the traders testifies of them 
that they were "reasonable when sobered, and do 
not bear a grudge for violence by traders to subdue 
them when drunk." At the little trading outposts 
a supply of laudanum was always on hand to be 
mixed with the rum when matters were going too far. 
We shall add that the Indian soon grew to love 
alcohol with a great longing, so that he would travel 
great distances and part with anything to get it. 
No negotiation or purchase or sale had any chance 
of success unless the rum pannikin was forthcoming 
or promised. 

Every settler's cabin in those days had its whiskey 
jug; every fort its supply of liquor. Such things were 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 97 

a matter of course, a daily supply, a ration as habitual 
as bread. So in a successful raid the savages always 
found the wherewith to inflame his mind; and thus 
by the light of burning cabins atrocities were com- 
mitted beyond what even native cruelty would have 
urged without the liquor. And that added to the 
trouble. If you had laboured for some years hard, 
with axe and plough, and had at length bit by bit 
made yourself a cabin and a little farm ; if one by one 
you had accumulated and bred until you had a tiny 
little herd of cows and pigs; if you and your wife had 
worked early and late, and your little baby was just 
getting big enough to toddle to the door to meet you 
— and then suppose some evening at sundown you 
were to return home from an absence, full of eager- 
ness, and as you came around the point of the woods 
you saw a blackened smoking heap where your cabin 
had stood. As you ran forward you saw your cattle 
killed and left wantonly where they had fallen; your 
crops burned down. And at the house lay your 
little baby, its skull crushed when some Indian swung 
it by the feet against a tree. Your wife was gone. 
In desperation you aroused the neighbours, and per- 
haps by fortune you overtook the Indians after a 
number of days' travel. The Indians had had time 
to torture her. Your gentle, pretty wife has had her 
nails bent back; she has had her soft body burned by 



98 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

gun barrels heated red hot; she has had charges of 
powder fired into her; she has had the joints of her 
ten fingers and her ten toes burned off one by one. 
She has in her prolonged agony cried for water, and 
they have brought her molten lead. Perhaps I 
should not tell you even these few details, but it is 
necessary for you to get the vivid picture so you can 
gain even a faint understanding. Purposely I have 
omitted the worst of the Indian tortures. They were 
expert at prolonging the most exquisite agony for a 
very long period. One man writing at the time said 
that the "Indians could only torture him three hours 
before he died; but his screams were particularly 
horrible." I quote from memory. Can you wonder 
that such a man whose place you have for the moment 
taken, and all his neighbours, looked on the perpetra- 
tors of such a tragedy as fiends.^ And when this, or 
worse, happens not once or twice, but hundreds of 
times, can you marvel that at last the tendency was 
for the average settler to look on all Indians as wild 
beasts to be shot at sight as wild beasts are.^ 

And you must remember that the Indian was kind, 
generous, and loyal to those who were his friends, or 
against whom he did not make war. Only, he made 
war cruelly; and so in the slow movement of evolution 
he had to take the consequences. 

This antagonism between white and red was further 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 99 

intensified by the Indian's fierce and haughty pride. 
He was very touchy. IncKned to be friendly at first, 
he was inflamed to sudden anger at fancied slights 
or rebuffs. Very tender of his dignity was he; and 
very suspicious that his dignity was of set purpose 
assailed. Once he had a grievance, or thought he 
had, he was revengeful to an extraordinary degree. 
Things a white nian would never notice, or if he did 
notice, would forget the next instant, the Indian 
would brood over and make a reason for retaliation. 
And that retaliation might come instantly, in a burst 
of rage; or it might not come about until years later. 
If possible it was at once, for the savage was subject 
to fits of ungovernable anger. It is very hard, at 
the best, to get along with such people. We all 
have them among our acquaintance, and they take 
very careful handling. But the white borderers were 
not inclined to be particularly tender of their red 
neighbours' feelings; looking down on them as savages, 
and treating them with at best a good-natured toler- 
ance and at worst with a fierce contempt. Each 
side thus firmly believed itself superior to the other: 
for the Indian considered himself in every way better 
than the white — in honour, in bravery, in military 
skill, in endurance, in woodcraft. As to all but the 
first they were certainly right, and as to honour, 
within their understanding of that term, they held 



100 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

to their code at least as closely as we did to ours. 
They did not understand our virtues of steadfast- 
ness, industry, inventiveness, and the like. 

"The Indians do not fear our numbers, which they 
deride," writes Eastburn, "because of our unhappy 
divisions in consequence of which they expect to 
conquer us completely." 

Thus just in the make-up of the two races we have 
good material for trouble; even if nothing else were 
to urge them against each other. 

But the last of the evil fairies of the Indian dis- 
position was his improvidence. He had little or no 
notion either of producing enough of anything to 
assure the future, or of saving a little to-day so as 
to have something for to-morrow. Most of us are a 
bit unwise that way; but the germ of thrift is in our 
race, and it was not in the Indian. We have seen 
how he fed everybody who entered his dwelling until 
the last was gone, even with a hard winter ahead and 
though the visitor had just had eight square meals. 
That was exactly typical. He raised some corn and 
vegetables, to be sure, because he liked them; but he 
rarely made sufficient store to last him through the 
season; and the winters were histories of famines. 

This trait was not entirely, nor even principally, 
ignoble. It sprang not so much from laziness as 
from faith. The Indian, within his simple belief, 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 101 

was deeply religious, in that he made his religion a 
part of his daily life. He believed that death did not 
amount to very much, that men went right on doing 
things on the other side of the Veil, and that to pass 
from this life to that was merely like going from a 
forest he knew to one he did not know. Indeed the 
usual way of expressing death in some tribes was to 
say that a man "changed his climate." One of the 
behefs of his religion was that men are under the 
personal care of the Great Spirit; that nothing can 
happen to them without the consent and intention 
of the Great Spirit; that good luck and bad luck, 
fortune and misfortune, happiness and misery, plenty 
and famine, are all bestowed by the Great Spirit for 
the purpose of punishing, rewarding, training, or de- 
veloping his children. 

Our old friend, James Smith, after he had been for 
a long time captive of the Dela wares, was out with 
an old Indian named Tecaughutanego and a little 
boy named Nunganey. They were forty miles from 
anywhere, and they had the bad luck to encounter 
a spell of weather that made so thick a snow crust 
that Smith could not kill meat. The old man was 
laid up with rheumatism. After a while things, to 
Smith, became desperate. It looked as though noth- 
ing could save them from starvation. For two days 
he had had nothing at all to eat, and ;liad hunted 



102 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

frantically. The old Indian and the boy had huddled 
at home in the hut trying to keep warm and conserve 
their strength. But let Smith tell about it: 

"When I came into our hut Tecaughutanego 
asked what success. I told him not any. He asked 
me if I was not very hungry. I replied that the 
keen edge of appetite seemed to be in some measure 
removed, but I was both faint and weary. He 
commanded Nunganey to bring me something to eat, 
and he brought me a kettle with some bones and 
broth." 

This was made, it seemed, from some old bones 
of fox and wildcat that the ravens and buzzards had 
left. They did not contain much substance, but 
they warmed and revived Smith. Then the old 
Indian filled and lighted his pipe, and handed it to 
his white friend, waiting patiently until it was smoked 
out. After Smith, in answer to his inquiries, stated 
himself much refreshed, the old man said that he had 
something of importance to communicate. 

"He said the reason he deferred his speech till 
now was that few men are in a right humour to hear 
good talk when they are extremely hungry, as they 
are then generally fretful and discomposed; 'but 
as you now appear to enjoy calmness and serenity 
of mind, I will now communicate to you the thoughts 
of my heart, and those things I know to be true. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 103 

"'Brother: as you have lived with the white people, 
you have not had the same advantage of knowing 
that the Great Being above feeds his people, and 
gives them their meat in due season, as we Indians 
have who are frequently out of provisions, and yet 
are wonderfully supplied, and that so frequently that 
it is evidently the hand of the great Owaneeyo that 
does this. Whereas the white people have commonly 
large stocks of tame cattle that they can kill when 
they please, and also their barn cribs filled with 
grain, and therefore have not the same opportunity of 
seeing and knowing that they are supported by the 
Ruler of heaven and earth. 

"'Brother: I know that you are now afraid that 
we will all perish with hunger, but you have no just 
reason to fear this. 

"'Brother: I have been young, but now am old; 
and I have frequently been under the like circum- 
stances that we now are, and that some time or other 
in almost every year of my life; yet I have hitherto 
been supported, and my wants supplied in times of 
need. 

"'Brother: Owaneeyo sometimes suffers us to be 
in want, in order to teach us our dependence upon 
him, and to let us know that we are to love and 
serve him; and likewise to know the worth of the 
favours we receive and make us thankful. 



104 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

"'Brother: Be assured that you will be supplied 
with food, and that just in the right time; but you 
must continue diligent in the use of means. Go 
to sleep, and rise early in the morning and go a-hunt- 
ing; be strong, and exert yourself like a man, and the 
Great Spirit will direct your way'." 

It is pleasant to relate that the old man's words 
were justified, and that the very next day Smith ran 
across some buffalo and managed to kill a cow. 

But such faith in divine care naturally takes it for 
granted that the means must be at hand. These 
Indians had no belief in manna from heaven. They 
thought Owaneeyo would throw game in their way 
when it suited his purpose: but there must be game to 
throw. If a race of men are to depend solely on the 
natural sustenance of the wilderness, then they need 
a very large area of country. Wild animals require 
more space than tame and pasture-fed animals; so do 
wild men. The Indians realized very thoroughly 
that the coming of the white man in any numbers 
portended the killing and driving away of the game: 
which meant in time that the Great Spirit could no 
longer take care of his children. So the wars were 
not only wars of revenge, wars of hatred, but were 
also wars of preservation of what they considered their 
own, wars to defend the very continuance of the kind 
of life in agreement with their religion. 



CHAPTER IX 

NOR as a race were the white men without 
blame. Never did the most brutal of them 
quite get down to the ferocious cruelty of the 
Indians; but it must be remembered that cruelty 
with the Indian was something taught as honourable 
against an enemy, while with the white man it was 
purely a personal matter. Nevertheless, some of 
them were bad enough; and we seem to have had an 
unhappy faculty of doing things that alienated even 
those inclined at first to be friendly. 

The pioneers were a rough race, even with each 
other. They were moulded for a hard job; and with 
the majority of them fineness of fibre or delicacy of 
feeling was not marked. Their jokes were boisterous 
and crude, their manners noisy; their perceptions 
quite incapable of appreciating the fact that they 
might be hurting the other man's feelings. In their 
every-day dealings they had little of that grave and 
calm ceremony so much esteemed by the Indians. 
Add to these natural disadvantages the fact that they 
looked down on the savages with contempt which 
they took small pains to conceal; and you can readily 

105 



106 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

see that there could be no great sympathy between 
the races. 

But we must go a step beyond that. There is no 
doubt but that the white man committed many unwar- 
ranted deeds of aggression. One of the worst was his 
persistence in selHng the Indians hquor. We have 
seen how rum changed the savage's whole nature. 
The earliest settlers soon realized that with the help 
of a little fire water the Indian could be persuaded to 
almost anything. It was very useful in making 
treaties or trading. By its aid thousands of bad 
bargains — for the red man — were carried through 
quite legally; bargains great and small, but ending 
always in the Indian having less than he had before. 
It was all open and above board; and the savage went 
into it of his own free will; but the fact remained that 
his judgment had been clouded, or completely taken 
away. When he came to himself, he realized this 
fact. He could not do anything about it, but, dimly 
or clearly, he felt the injustice and nursed a grievance. 
And on the next occasion the same thing happened 
again; for once he had acquired the taste, he could not 
resist. Many of the greater chiefs knew this, and 
begged the whites to keep liquor from their people. 
It might be stated in justice to the whites that whiskey 
and rum were with them part of every bargain, busi- 
ness transaction, or social gathering. Even church 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 107 

business was carried forward with vast seas of port 
and madeira. It was considered no disgrace to get 
drunk: indeed that was quite as natural a way of 
enjoying oneself as is now a game of cards or dancing. 
A sot was looked down on simply because he allowed 
pleasure to elbow aside the other business of life. So 
our ancestors probably did not even have a passing 
suspicion that they were doing anything immoral in 
thus furnishing liquor. As to the cheating, as we 
would now call it, that was an age of individualism, 
wherein every man was supposed to take care of him- 
self. We, in these days of the team-work idea, find 
it difficult to realize how completely this was true. 
Every man was responsible only to himself for ninety- 
nine hundredths of his actions. Unless these actions 
directly and immediately harmed his neighbours, he 
could do as he pleased. He might wantonly kill a 
perfectly friendly Indian on the very fringe of town; 
his action might be deplored or even frowned upon 
by his neighbours, but he would not be called to ac- 
count. I am writing of borderers, not of the early 
blue-law Puritans. The neighbours would stop him 
fast enough if he tried to steal something off the wall, 
because they could see where that affected them: but 
so strongly were they independent as individuals 
that they could not perceive that in the long run 
Indian killing affected them more. And so we see 



108 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the first racial uneasiness begin to smoulder from a 
feeling of injustice. 

And a feeling of injustice in the matter of lands and 
pelts was strengthened by individual injustices of all 
kinds. There were three widely divergent classes of 
people who inflicted them: the strictly religious, the 
irresponsible ruffians, and those whose deadly enmity 
had been aroused by border outrages. 

The first sort is very well illustrated by the per- 
formance of that sweetly tolerant lot we revere as 
the Pilgrim Fathers. They were at first very well 
received by the Indians. One warrior in especial took 
a great liking to them, and was constantly with them 
and doing all sorts of favours for them. When the 
first Thanksgiving was proclaimed, he hastened to 
the forest eager to supply his bit to the white man's 
feast, and had the luck to kill a fat buck. He carried 
the deer on his shoulders to the settlement and proudly 
presented it to his new friends. They had him 
whipped. Why? Because he had killed the deer 
on Sunday ! What did the poor, friendly, eager savage 
know of Sunday .^^ And what possible difference 
could it make to any but the religiously insane when 
a kind and generous deed is done! But you can 
imagine that the poor Indian, sore, bewildered, 
changed his mind about being a friend of the white 
man; and changed the minds of his people as far as 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 109 

his influence extended. There were many similar 
instances. 

The ruffians were an even more serious matter. 
You must reahze that a good many of the more 
southerly settlers were actually convicts, either sent 
over from the old country to be got rid of, or brought 
in as bondsmen. They and their descendants could 
not be expected to exemplify all the virtues. And 
among the better element are always roughs, men 
without scruple, scornful of the other man's rights, 
overbearing, bullying, ready fighters, indifferent to 
consequences, hard drinkers, "tough" boys. These 
are hard enough to handle in a modern city with all 
the facihties of a police system. It was absolutely 
impossible to handle them in those days of individual 
irresponsibihty, and nobody tried. They committed 
all sorts of absolutely unprovoked outrages; and the 
hatreds and revenges they inspired were laid to the 
whole white race. That sort of thing was done by 
both sides. A white settler who had lost family or 
friends was thenceforth an enemy of the Indians, 
good or bad; an Indian who had been insulted or 
cheated or maltreated by some renegade killed the 
first white man he saw. There was little to choose 
between the two sides; and these things, from small 
beginnings, accumulated, became worse and worse, 
until there was an abiding enmity. The wonder is 



110 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

not that white men and red men were so merciless 
to each other, but rather that there persisted so much 
personal friendship and mercy and decency in spite 
of everything. 

But outside of any question of justice or injustice, 
we must not forget that nothing could have saved the 
Indian in his old manner of life. He occupied and 
owned vast areas of land in the sense that he roamed 
over it and killed game on it. In the broader sense 
of ever having done anything to make it useful or 
productive he did not occupy it nor own it at all. 
Whether by peace or war, whether by slow evolution 
or swift force, it has always been the history of the 
world that nomadic peoples disappear before pas- 
toral peoples, and they in turn give way to agricul- 
tural peoples. Sometimes the same race develops 
from hunters to herdsmen to farmers: sometimes, as 
with the Indian and with the Californian-Spanish, 
it is thrust aside. As the country became settled, 
as it was necessary that fewer acres be required to 
support more people, it would be inevitable either 
that the Indian move on to a fresh game country 
or that he modify his nomadic life and support him- 
self in a new way. That is a law of evolution, and 
cannot be avoided. 

And in the present instance the Indians had less 
than their usual shadow of a title to the land. The 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 111 

country south of the Ohio was a debatable ground 
always. It lay between the Cherokee races on the 
south and the Algonquin races on the north, and was 
used by both as a hunting and battle ground, but 
was settled by neither. Daniel Boone and his com- 
panions, members of a third race, going into Ken- 
tucky for the same purposes, thereby acquired just 
as good a title. However, as will be seen, treaties 
were here also made and broken. 

There we are. After some centuries of contact the 
two races, rightly or wrongly, faced each other as 
enemies. 

The Indians were formidable fighters; and in those 
days had advantages denied our plains Indians in 
their period of warfare with the whites. It is easier 
to learn plains' craft or mountain craft than wood- 
craft. Two or three men in the mountains or on 
the prairie can stand off a great number of Indians. 
But these savages dwelt and travelled and fought in a 
region of dark, tangled, gloomy forest. It was a 
forest of dense leafy undergrowth so thick that one 
could rarely see more than a few yards, and yet so 
yielding that one could glide almost anywhere through 
it. The high, straight trunks of the trees rose above 
it, branching and forked, leaning, the most excellent 
observation posts where a warrior could sit at ease 
scanning the mobile sea of brush beneath. No horse 



112 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

could travel through it except on chopped paths or 
game trails, so that it was easy for the ambuscading 
savage to guess his mounted foe's route. Indeed 
even a foot traveller — unless he was an expert in 
woodcraft beyond the skill of most people even in 
those days — who strayed a hundred yards off known 
routes would be hopelessly lost. In such a forest 
there are few landmarks, a terrifying similarity. Only 
very occasionally was this forest opened by a meadow 
in a valley, or a "park" on a hillside, but ordinarily 
one could travel literally for weeks on end without 
either seeing clearly the sun or any other prospect 
but the tree trunks and the thick, leafy screen of the 
underbrush. About the only exceptions were the 
"openings" in Kentucky. 

Now it is all very well to have told you of the wood- 
craft education our little white boys were given, and 
it was a wonderful education; but it could not possibly 
equal that of the Indian lads. The red boy had the 
advantage of inheriting qualities the white boy's 
ancestry could not hand down to him; and in addition 
he was, in all this, leading his normal every -day life, 
where the white boy was merely being taught, how- 
ever thoroughly, for an emergency. As Roosevelt 
says: 

"To their keen eyes, trained for generations to 
more than a wild beast's watchfulness, the wilderness 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 113 

was an open book; nothing at rest or in motion 
escaped them. They had begun to track game as 
soon as they could walk; a scrape on a tree trunk, a 
bruised leaf, a faint indentation of the soil which the 
eye of no white man could see, all told them a tale as 
plainly as if it had been shouted in their ear. They 
could no more get lost in a wilderness than a white 
man could get lost on a highway." 

Their accustomed moccasins could move silently and 
surely among dried twigs and dead leaves. The 
"broken dried twig" of fiction has become somewhat 
of a joke, its mention occurs so often, yet any one who 
has done any still hunting in the forest knows that 
this is the most frequent, the most difficult to avoid, 
and the loudest and most advertising of any of the 
minor accidents. The ability to move with absolute 
silence is a rare gift. Savages shared it with cougars 
and wildcats. 

And so in this pathless blinded forest, where every 
tree trunk, every leafy bush, every stone was a ready- 
made ambush, where thousands of obstacles to easy 
travel made the clumsy white man as obvious as a 
circus parade, the Indians moved, invisible, silent, 
watching their foes with fierce contempt, awaiting the 
moment to strike. For days they would follow a 
party as wolves follow a herd, skulking unsuspected, 
leaving a trail that only an expert could recognize. 



114 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

They were never as good shots with the rifle as a 
white hunter; and as a rule they were not as strong 
physically in a rough-and-tumble; but they were 
better shots than the regular soldiers, and a hand-to- 
hand combat with knife and tomahawk they never 
avoided, and often won. They had superior endur- 
ance. Their ability to travel long distances enabled 
them to strike unexpectedly, and far from their own 
villages. They appeared silently from unknown 
forests, robbed and murdered, and disappeared. 
There was always the utmost difficulty in following 
them, and nobody could guess where next they would 
attack. Add to these things their cunning and quiet 
stealth, their courage and skill in fight, and the 
fiendish cruelty of their deeds, you cannot wonder that 
the settlers looked on them as devils out of the black 
forest. 

Now can you longer wonder that when Braddock or 
Grant led into this wilderness the very best white 
troops trained in European warfare, they were not 
only defeated, but massacred.'^ They were helpless. 
They could not stray thirty yards from the column 
without getting lost; and a column offered only too 
fair a mark to the savages. They could never catch 
the smallest glimpse of the silently flitting foe. The 
Indians attacked such clustered huddled opponents 
without the slightest hesitation, shooting them down 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 115 

as they would herded buffalo. The soldiers might 
as well have been blindfolded. It was only when the 
trained borderers took a hand that the white man 
made head, slowly. And now you can understand 
more clearly what it means when you are told that 
Boone, Kenton, Mansker, and their contemporaries 
beat the Indian at his own game. 



CHAPTER X 

WITH a full knowledge of the dangers and 
horrors of any determined Indian warfare 
before him, Daniel Boone knew better than 
to push forward into the new Paradise without some 
sort of backing; and as at present it seemed impossible 
to get that, he settled down in the Clinch Valley as 
patiently as he could to await the turn of events. 

Now it happened that in those times, as to-day, 
it was the custom after a war was over to give the 
soldiers who had fought in that war a bounty or 
bonus. This took the form of lands. After the 
French war, that preceded the Revolution, the cus- 
tom had been followed, and Virginia had located her 
bounty lands in Kentucky! To be sure nobody could 
get at that land; but, on the other hand, it was re- 
ported to be very rich, so it would probably be 
valuable some day. The legislators had no concern 
with ways and means. "Here," they told the 
soldier, "the land is there: for we have been rehably 
informed as to that fact. We have voted it to you. 
It is none of our business how you get it — or whether 
you ever get it." 

116 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 117 

But at that time a man named Lord Dunmore 
was Governor of Virginia. He was much hated and 
vilified later, when his loyalty to his own country 
impelled him quite naturally to take the British side, 
but he seems to have been a man of vision and of 
energy. He, too, was much taken with the stories of 
the new West; and in 1772 he had made arrangements 
to explore in company with George Washington. 
The expedition fell through, but both Washington — 
as a friend of the soldier; and Dunmore — as being 
interested in opening new country for his colony of 
Virginia — occupied themselves in making more defi- 
nite the rather vague bounty claims. To this end 
they sent in surveyors. 

These bold and hardy men under an expert woods- 
man named Thomas Bullitt, and including many 
names later famous, made their way down the Ohio 
River to the Falls; following thus the custom of tak- 
ing the easy routes by waterway. Here they built 
a fortified camp and proceeded methodically about 
their business. 

This was in 1773. The next year, as these were 
unmolested, other surveyors were sent in; and Captain 
James Harrod with a party of forty-one men came 
down the Ohio River looking out possible locations for 
the bounty land. Another party came up the Ken- 
tucky River to about the present site of Louisville. 



118 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

None of these men brought their famihes nor any of 
their household goods. They were exactly like the 
hunting parties who had preceded them, except that 
they had other thoughts in view besides the pursuit of 
game and pelts. 

You may be sure the Indians viewed these en- 
croachments with uneasiness. They had not yet 
come to the point of declaring an open war nor 
advancing on these rather strong bands of white men 
in sufficient force to destroy them; but raiding parties 
of young men were constantly on the warpath or on 
horse-stealing expeditions — a favourite form of sport. 
Lonely cabins on the east side of the mountains were 
attacked and their occupants killed or carried cap- 
tive. Many white people were thus slain before a 
drop of Shawnee blood was shed. The borderers 
grew more and more exasperated and surly at these 
swift blows struck in the dark by an enemy who 
disappeared before the blow could be countered. 
Once in a while they set forth in retaliation, and then 
the chances were nine out of ten that they killed the 
wrong Indians, which made them still more enemies. 
Everything was ripe for a grand explosion. The 
whites were anxious for a war that would settle these 
forays; the Shawnees and Mingos were haughty and 
yet at the same time uneasy over the westward ad- 
vance of the whites; Lord Dunmore desired to add 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 119 

definitely the Kentucky lands to his Colony of 
Virginia, and at the same time, probably, in view 
of the increasing trouble with England, he would 
have been delighted to distract the Virginians' minds 
by an Indian war. All that was needed was an 
excuse. 

Lord Dunmore saw plainly that the excuse could 
not be long wanting, and that if the surveying parties 
in the back country were not to perish in the first 
blast of the tempest, they must be immediately 
warned. In this need he sent for Daniel Boone, 
whose name was already well known, and whose 
daring journey was celebrated. As Boone expresses 
it, Lord Dunmore "solicited" him to go in to warn 
the surveyors. 

"I immediately complied with the Governor's 
request," says Boone simply. 

He picked out one of his acquaintance named 
Stoner, another master woodcraftsman, and the 
two started on their journey. It was doubly peril- 
ous, not only because of the growing hostility of the 
Indians, but also because the necessity for making 
speed rendered it impossible for them to be as care- 
ful as usual. 

It was a most extraordinary feat, for it covered 
over eight hundred miles and was completed in two 
months. It was entirely overland, for the easier 



120 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

water routes — along which the surveyors had en- 
tered — were now closed by Indians. They found 
and visited all the surveyors' camps, no light feat in 
itself, and they warned Captain Harrod and his 
party of landlookers. Boone, with characteristic 
far-sightedness, lost no opportunity of getting more 
first-hand information of the land. So pressing 
was the need of this warning that only a few days 
after Boone's arrival at the Falls of the Ohio, while 
the surveyors and settlers were breaking camp get- 
ting ready to go, a number of them who had gone to 
the spring for water were attacked suddenly. The 
survivors had to scatter and escape as best they 
could. One man, with the Indians about two jumps 
behind him, fled along an Indian trail and shortly 
arrived at the Ohio River. Here, at the end of the 
trail, by the greatest good luck, was a bark canoe. 
He flung himself into it and shoved off, lying low 
until the swift current at this part of the river had 
carried him out of range. By the time he dared 
raise his head he was far down stream, around many 
bends and headlands. To make head against the 
force of the stream, with probably the Indians wait- 
ing for him, seemed impossible; especially as the 
fugitive had no idea whether or not he would find 
his comrades still living. It seemed easier to keep 
on going, so he did. In the bark canoe he floated 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 121 

down the entire length of the Ohio and Mississippi 
rivers, a distance of two thousand miles, and in some 
manner made his way up the Atlantic coast to 
Philadelphia. It was certainly a roundabout way 
to get home, and a most extraordinary journey. 
The time was summer, so that wild grapes and ber- 
ries were plentiful; besides which, like all frontiers- 
men who never stirred step without rifle, he was 
armed. 

By secret ways and with great dangers and 
natural difficulties avoided Boone led his little band 
across the mountains and safe to civilization. The 
Hunter himself remarked that they overcame "many 
obstacles," which was an emphatic statement from 
him. Considering the fact that during his absence 
war had finally blazed in all its fury, so that now 
must be avoided an aroused and active foe, Boone's 
successful conduct of this party was truly remarkable. 

During his absence the needed spark had been 
struck that should fire the tinder so long prepared. 
At that time one of the most noted men on the 
border, red or white, was Logan, an Iroquois, but 
now chief among the Senecas and Mingos. He was 
a man of very high character, a great orator, a man 
of vision and intelligence, one who knew the in- 
tegrity of his word and his honour. An individual 
named Lowden has told us that he considered 



122 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

"Logan the best specimen of humanity he ever met 
with either white or red," which is remarkable 
praise in that day when borderers like Lowden 
looked on "savages" with contempt. Logan was a 
noble specimen of a man, over six feet tall, straight 
as a pine tree, with an open and kindly expression. 
He had ever been the friend of the whites, using 
always all his influence for peace, and doing for them 
all the kindly deeds in his power. Especially was 
he a friend of children, noted for his gentleness to 
them. Nor was he less celebrated for his manly 
qualities. He was a good shot, and as mighty a 
hunter as Boone himself. Throughout the whole 
border he was liked by everybody, and treated by 
everybody with the greatest respect, for his manner 
was said to have been informed with a grave and 
lofty courtesy that seemed to exact an equal courtesy 
in return, even from the roughest men. It has been 
told of him that "he was greatly liked and respected 
by all the white hunters and frontiersmen whose 
friendship and respect were worth having: they 
admired him for his dexterity and prowess, and they 
loved him for his straightforward honesty and his 
noble loyalty to his friends." 

Now just at this time three traders were attacked 
by some outlaw Cherokees, outlaw from even their 
own tribe; one was killed, one wounded, and their 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 123 

goods were stolen. Orders were issued by Lord 
Dunmore's lieutenant to the borderers to hold them- 
selves in readiness to repel any attack by the Indians. 
On the strength of that, some of the reckless and 
lawless borderers started out to kill perfectly friendly 
and innocent Indians. And by what must seem 
always the most evil of all injustice, every member 
of Logan's family was most brutally murdered, nine 
in all, down to the last child. All these retaliatory 
killings fell on friendly Indians. 

Immediately the flames of war blazed up. Swift 
runners loped through the forest carrying the news 
to distant tribes. The war poles were struck in 
many villages; and to the command of Cornstalk, 
the greatest of the war chiefs, came practically 
every warrior of four powerful tribes: the Shawnees, 
the Delawares, the Mingos, and the Wyandotts. 
To the Indians, proud and warlike, and firmly con- 
vinced that they could conquer the whites and bar 
them from the country, the time seemed to have 
come for the supreme effort. 

Logan did not wait for his own revenge. On 
learning of the slaughter of his family he gathered 
together a small band of Mingo warriors and fell 
on the settlement. He took there thirteen scalps. 
A party pursued; but he ambushed them cleverly, 
and defeated them, taking more scalps. Before the 



124 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

war had become general he made at least four of 
these bloody raids, perhaps more, burning, toma- 
hawking, killing, and disappearing again as he had 
come. He was a wolf, sombre and terrible. Yet 
even in this paroxysm of grief, anger, and revenge his 
nobler qualities were not submerged. He was out 
to kill in his madness; yet when a prisoner was 
captured he refused to permit torture, and risked 
his own life to save the captive. A few days later 
he came to this white man bringing a quill, some 
paper, and ink made of gunpowder. Under dic- 
tation the prisoner wrote a short note addressed to 
Captain Cresap, whom Logan supposed to be the 
murderer of his family. This was a mistake. A 
trader named Greathouse had committed the deed. 
Then Logan made another raid, murdered the entire 
family of a white settler, and left the note tied to a 
war club. It read: 
"Captain Cresap: 

What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for.^^ 
The white people killed my kin at Conestoga, a 
great while ago, and I thought nothing of that. But 
you killed my kin again at Yellow Creek, and took 
my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill, 
too; and I have been three times to war since; but the 
Indians are not angry, only myself." 

The great Seneca chief was wrong: the Indians 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 125 

were angry; and from the swarm that was gathering 
at Cornstalk's camp large bands detached themselves 
and fell upon the border. Terrible were the ravages. 
The settlers, gathered in the forts, could no longer 
hunt, could no longer cultivate their farms except 
at the deadly peril of their lives. Yet life must go 
on in spite of the danger. Houses were burned, 
crops destroyed, prisoners tortured. No one knew 
where a blow was to fall next. The forests were 
full of danger. Stealth and ferocity, as usual, 
characterized the forays. The marauders appeared 
out of a quiet peace before their proximity could 
be suspected, and disappeared as suddenly. They 
left no trail that could be successfully followed; nor, 
in the presence of the large bodies that now roamed 
the forests, was a pursuing party of a size any 
settlement could send out safe against being over- 
whelmed and massacred. And behind them they 
left a waste of charred timbers and of scalped and 
mangled corpses. Not in isolated places and oc- 
casionally were these scenes enacted, as heretofore; 
but anywhere, everywhere, at any time, so that 
from end to end the border was vocal with 
demoniac war whoops and shrieks of the victims, 
lurid with the glare of burning buildings and the 
rolling smokes of fires. In the dark woodlands 
were many desperate combats; for the whites, in a 



126 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

frenzy of anger so much the stronger as it was for 
the moment powerless, went forth in little bands 
seeking revenge. As the Indians were confident 
and full of the pride of success some of these woodland 
skirmishes were very deadly. 

The border quailed before the fury of the storm, 
but it did not break. Lord Dunmore realized that 
this was a mattet to be settled decisively not nibbled 
at; and like a wise commander he was making ade- 
quate preparations. These took time. By way 
of a diversion he advised the frontiersmen to or- 
ganize a raid on their own account, not with the idea 
of conquering the Indians, but to keep them a little 
busy. Four hundred of them gathered under Angus 
McDonald, crossed the Ohio River a little over a 
hundred miles below where Pittsburg stands, and 
marched to the Muskingum River, in Ohio, where 
there were several Shawnee towns. If you will 
look at the map, you will see that this was sneaking 
in on them by way of the back door. Most of the 
Shawnee warriors were away on other business. 
The expedition had a smart fight with those who 
remained, took five scalps — white men scalped as 
well as savages — burned the villages, destroyed a 
lot of standing corn, and returned. The Shawnees 
tried to ambush them on their way home, but failed. 
The expedition was successful in drawing off some 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 127 

of the warriors to defend their own homes, and as a 
demonstration that the villages were not quite as 
safe as they had thought. This was just about the 
time Boone had reached the surveyors at the Falls. 

While all this was going on Lord Dunmore was 
getting what was for those days a really formidable 
army. It was about three thousand strong. One 
wing of it was to be under Dunmore himself. The 
other, composed entirely of frontiersmen, was com- 
manded by General Andrew Lewis. The two wings 
were to march by separate routes and join forces 
at the mouth of a river called the Great Kanawha, 
a stream that flowed into the Ohio River south of 
the most populous Indian villages. From there they 
would penetrate the Indian's country and give him 
a taste of his own medicine. 

Matters were in this condition when Boone and 
Stoner returned with the surveyors. Boone at 
once proceeded to raise a company of riflemen and 
was about to march to join Lord Dunmore when he 
received instructions that in recognition of his 
services he had been commissioned as captain and 
had been given the very responsible job of command- 
ing the frontier forts. While the expedition was on 
its way to bring terror to the Indian villages Boone 
must assure our own from counter-attack. He was 
very busy at it. So large a proportion of the men 



128 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

had gone to join Dunmore that Boone's garrisons 
were small, and had to be eked out with the boys 
and old men. Boone himself was continually pass- 
ing stealthily from one to another, generally at 
night. His scouts were flung far out into the forest 
to give early warning of an attack. Instead of 
dividing and scattering his effective forces among 
the different forts, he trained a compact body of 
riflemen, and these he held ready always to move 
swiftly in aid when the outrunners brought news 
that any of the forts were attacked. In the military 
correspondence of that summer he is frequently 
mentioned in terms of the highest praise, even the 
usually scornful British ojBScers speaking of him in 
"a respectful and even deferential tone." A con- 
temporary writer tells of him as a familiar figure 
throughout the valley, as he hurried to and fro on 
his duties, "dressed in deerskin coloured black, and 
his hair plaited and clubbed up." There were 
alarms and attacks and short sieges in all of which 
the Scout's especial abilities came into better play 
than they would had he been merely one of Lord 
Dunmore's army. 

Nevertheless, we can imagine his regret at not 
being with the main expedition, in spite of his well- 
known placidity of temper and philosophy of view. 

In the meantime, something had occurred to 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 129 

change the original plan. You remember Lord 
Dunmore's section and General Lewis's section were 
to march by separate routes and meet at the junction 
of the Ohio and the Kanawha rivers. Suddenly 
Dunmore, who was at Fort Pitt with nineteen 
hundred of the total of three thousand men, de- 
cided that he would not join Lewis as planned, but 
instead floated down the Ohio in flatboats, built 
some log forts, and started on a raid of his own toward 
some Indian villages farther west. His troops were 
mainly Colonials, the most of the borderers being 
with Lewis; but he had under his command a number 
of famous scouts, among whom were George Rogers 
Clark, Cresap, and Simon Kenton. He managed 
to destroy a few towns, but the decisive engagement 
was denied him. 

The other section under Lewis gathered at the 
Great Levels of Greenbriar, and was almost com- 
pletely composed of backwoodsmen, "heroes of long 
rifle, tomahawk, and hunting shirt, gathering from 
every stockaded hamlet, every lonely clearing and 
smoky hunter's camp. They were not uniformed, 
save that they all wore the garb of the frontier 
hunter; but most of them were armed with good 
rifles, and were skilful woodsmen." They were 
gathered on an errand that appealed to the very 
heart of them. For years and years they had been 



130 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

forced to live in the strain of perpetual watchfulness, 
never knowing where tragedy was going to strike 
next, each with terrible memories seared into his 
soul. They had been brought up in the shadows of 
stockades around which prowled the darker shadows 
of an enemy who struck unexpectedly and whose 
face was rarely seen. Nor were they able to strike 
back except in a feeble way. They could, and did, 
resist direct attack; they could in small bands fol- 
low, for a short distance, the retreating maraud- 
ers; but that was all. Ever had they to return, 
their hearts burning with sullen anger, their souls 
bitter. Now at last they were to be gathered in 
sufficient numbers to do something. Eagerly they 
assembled at Great Levels. The difficulty was not 
to get enough men; but to keep enough back to 
defend the settlements. 

These borderers were in many respects the most 
formidable fighters, but they had one serious fault: 
They were utterly undisciplined. To do anything 
really effective with a body of men, you must have 
teamwork. No matter whether or not the in- 
dividual thinks his commander is stupid, incom- 
petent, and a dodo, and that he could avoid all those 
obvious mistakes, he must follow implicitly that 
commander's orders. A very poor plan carried out 
well is better than a very good plan carried out 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 131 

badly. We all know that: but in those days when 
each man was a law to himself, when each man was 
accustomed not only to forming his own opinions 
but to acting on them without interference, the re- 
sult was an unruly and turbulent gathering. The 
oflScers were obeyed just so far as their orders 
seemed reasonable to the individual fighter or to the 
extent that he had personal influence or popularity. 
K the frontiersman did not happen to like the way 
things were going, he often went home without 
further ado. If he thought he had a better idea than 
the one embodied in the orders given by one of his 
officers, he shouted it forth; and if enough of his 
companions thought so, too, why they did it, orders or 
no orders. This often brought about disaster, as we 
shall see when we come to the battle of Blue Licks. 

In view of the discipline we have imposed on our- 
selves, because we know it to be the effective thing, 
the following account is interesting. Imagine now- 
adays a colonel being thus treated by a private! 
Twenty years in Leavenworth for him ! The private 
was named Abraham Thomas, a borderer, aged 
eighteen; and Colonel McDonald, a British officer 
in command. Thomas wrote: 

"While laying here, a violent storm through the 
night had wet our arms, and M 'Donald ordered the 
men to discharge them in a hollow log, to deaden the 



132 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

report. My rifle would not go off, and I took the 
barrel out to unbreech it. In doing this I made 
some noise beating it with my tomahawk, on which 
M 'Donald came toward me, swearing, with an up- 
lifted cane, threatening to strike. I instantly arose 
on my feet, with the rifle barrel in my hand, and 
stood in an attitude of defense. We looked each 
other in the eyes for some time; at last he dropped 
his cane and walked off, while the whole troop set 
up a laugh, crying, *The boy has scared the Colonel!' " 

Another incident : 

** During this battle one of the men, Jacob New- 
bold, saw the Colonel lying snug behind a tree." 
A perfectly proper proceeding in this sort of war- 
fare. "It was immediately noised among the men, 
who were in high glee at the joke: one would cry 
out, *Who got behind the log.'^' when a hundred voices 
would reply, *The Colonel! the Colonel!' At this 
M'Donald became outrageous; I heard him inquire 
for the man who had raised the report, and threaten 
to punish him." This was reported to Newbold who 
''raising on his feet and going toward the Colonel, 
he declared he did see him slink behind the log during 
the battle; he gave his rifle to a man standing by, 
cut some hickories, and stood on the defense, at 
which the whole company roared with laughter." 
Twenty years in Leavenworth.? Forty! But it is 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 133 

related of the Colonel that he merely "took himself 
oflF to another part of the line." 

To make such a body effective you must either 
have a leader whose reputation and experience are 
such that even these rough, cocksure men will obey 
them — such as Clark or Boone — or else you must 
have a great welding emotion that brings them firmly 
together in a common cause. 

In this case it was the common cause. 

The Indians, of course, were well aware of this 
gathering, and they were making their preparations 
in all confidence. As we have said, they had every 
belief that they would eventually conquer the white 
man; and they based this belief on just the trait 
we have been discussing. The white man seemed 
to be unable to do any teamwork. Time and again 
the watchful chiefs had seen their opponents come 
to grief because of their dissensions. This was the 
first time the borderers had ever got together ani- 
mated by a single strong purpose, and the arrogant 
redmen were as yet unaware of what that meant. 
It still seemed to them that by the old good tactics 
of defeating their enemy piecemeal they were again 
to win by the usual great slaughter. Indeed, the 
change of plan by which Lord Dunmore failed to 
join Lewis seemed to them another example of the 
same thing, and they hastened to take advantage. 



134 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

The war chief was Cornstalk. He was as cele- 
brated and as remarkable in his way as Logan, a man 
of great intelligence, high honour, widespread in- 
fluence, and military capacity. He was one of the 
few Indians at this time far-sighted enough to real- 
ize the actual situation and to estimate the white 
man's powers. Nobody doubted Cornstalk's cour- 
age, nor his loyalty to his own people; so in spite of 
his continued and strong opposition to this war, 
when once it was decided on there was no question 
but that he would be its military leader. He was, 
indeed, a statesman of high order, a great orator, a 
far-sighted seer who only too plainly foresaw the 
doom of his people. In the councils he steadily set 
his advice against the war; but when it was decided 
by vote he exclaimed: "Then since you are resolved 
to fight, you shall fight. But if any warrior shall 
attempt to run away, I shall kill him with my own 
hand." 

In the failure of Dunmore to join forces with 
Lewis he saw a chance to carry out his favourite 
tactics, to cut up his enemy in detail. As Lewis 
had with him only eleven hundred men, while the 
Earl commanded some nineteen hundred. Cornstalk 
resolved to attack the former. In doing so it is 
probable he made a mistake, for Lewis's men were 
nearly all border fighters, accustomed to forest 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 135 

warfare, while most of Lord Dunmore's army were 
from nearer the seaboard. At this sort of combat 
one of the former was worth three — or more — of 
the latter. On the other hand, he may have reasoned 
that Lewis was less lil<:ely to be prepared. 

At any rate, Cornstalk, as prompt to execute as 
he was wise to plan, led his long "Indian files" of 
painted warriors rapidly across country. He had 
with him somewhere about a thousand of the picked 
young men of various tribes, some from as far even 
as the Great Lakes. Thus it will be seen that even 
here he was outnumbered. 

In the meantime, Lewis's army was on the march. 
It was, as we have said, composed almost entirely 
of backwoodsmen; officers and men dressed alike in 
the hunting costume, fringed shirts, fur caps or felt 
hats, moccasins, often leggings and breech clout. 
They were armed with their rifles, their tomahawks, 
and their knives with which they took scalps as 
eagerly as did the savages. Unlike the Indians, how- 
ever, they did not travel merely with what they could 
carry on their backs. This was to be a long and 
decisive campaign; they did not intend to return home 
until they had finished the job; and so it is on record 
that they drove beef cattle and had hundreds of 
packhorses laden with flour and munitions. With 
men inexperienced, or partly experienced, in these 



136 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

dense forests, such an incumbrance would have 
offered fatal opportunities for surprise and massacre. 
Braddock's campaign is the classic example. But 
these men knew how. They marched in many 
single-file columns well separated, with scouts 
flung well out in front and on the flanks, with axe- 
men to clear a way for the animals. No matter 
from which side the Indians might attack, this 
arrangement would offer the thin, widely extended 
line most effective in forest fighting. They cut 
straight across the unbroken wilderness, making 
their route as they went. In about three weeks they 
had arrived at the upper waters of the Kanawha. 
Here they stopped a week to build canoes, of which 
they made twenty-seven. Part of the army then 
floated down stream while the remainder marched. 
Still another week later they came to the mouth of 
the river and camped on the point of land. 

Here Cornstalk attacked them; and here took 
place one of the most desperate Indian battles in 
history, stubbornly fought out on a small space of 
ground, the lines alternately swaying back and forth 
as attacks gained or leaders fell. "The fight," says 
Roosevelt, "was a succession of single combats, 
each man sheltering himself behind a stump, or rock, 
or tree trunk." The battle lines, while over a mile 
long, were drawn so closely together in the thick 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 137 

underbrush of the forest that never were they more 
than twenty yards apart. Again and again the 
individual foemen, having discharged their rifles, 
would leap on each other in deadly struggle with 
tomahawk and knife. The woods were filled with 
the noises of battle, the smack and clatter of the 
rifles, the wild yells and war whoops of the fighters, 
the cries of the badly wounded, and the jeers and 
taunts of the adversaries. To insult your enemy 
was as customary in those days as it was in the times 
of Homer. It is related that Colonel Field "was 
at the time behind a great tree, and was shot by two 
Indians on his right, while he was trying to get a 
shot at another on his left who was distracting his 
attention by mocking and jeering at him." And, 
"The Indians also called out to the Americans in 
broken English, taunting them, and asking them 
why their fifes were no longer whistling — for the 
fight was far too close to permit of any such mu- 
sic." And up through the straight trunks and 
leafy branches floated and eddied the white powder 
smoke. 

The Indians were, it is the universal testimony, 
remarkably well handled. Their headmen walked 
up and down behind the lines, holding their war- 
riors fast, exhorting them to close in, to aim care- 
fully, to keep courage. And all day long the white 



138 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

men could hear Cornstalk's deep and resonant 
voice booming out the words: "Be strong! Be 
strong!" 

Manoeuvres of tactics were promptly carried out. 
Against any other army in the world but just this 
one the Indians would undoubtedly have won an- 
other of their spectacular and bloody victories. 
But these backwoodsmen were stubborn and skil- 
ful ; they recked little for losses, and each man could 
care for himself. And since in the long day's battle 
neither side broke, at the close of the afternoon th e 
Indians slowly withdrew. 

It had been a bloody, hard-fought battle. On the 
white men were inflicted two hundred and fifteen 
casualties out of the eleven hundred engaged, a very 
severe loss. The Indians suffered only about half as 
heavily, but they felt it more, for their numbers were 
fewer and they had no great reserve to depend on. 
That night they slipped across the Ohio. The 
Americans were far too exhausted to pursue them. 
By the time they were prepared to follow up their 
advantage the Indians had already opened nego- 
tiations for peace with Lord Dunmore. 

For outside the very severe loss in the battle, a 
much larger loss than the Indian tactics ordinarily 
permitted, the Indian morale had received a severe 
shock. The redmen had heretofore been absolutely 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 139 

convinced that in any large operation they could, 
in the forest, whip twice their number of whites, and 
whip them so badly that the final result would be a 
rout and a massacre. They were fully justified in 
their belief. That's the way it had happened here- 
tofore; and generally because of some asininity in 
the conduct of the whites so glaring that the Indian 
can be readily excused in his contempt. About the 
only time the Indians had met with anything like 
a reverse was at Bushy Run where Bouquet, even 
with a greatly superior force, was just about beaten 
when he was saved by a body of provincial rangers, 
and at that suffered four times the casualties he 
inflicted. But here they had met a nearly equal 
force of white men and, if not defeated, had failed 
to gain the victory, and had undergone a loss they 
could not afford. Their mercurial spirits dropped 
into the profoundest gloom. A day before, they had 
in the arrogance of self-confidence unreasonably 
seen the future in their hands; now as unreasonably 
they went to the other extreme. 

Only Cornstalk, that grim old chief, was un- 
daunted, still ready to fight it out. He had fore- 
seen this result; he had been forced into the war 
against his judgment; but now he alone stood erect 
at the council fire gazing with lofty scorn at the 
circle of silent blanketed warriors, who stared at 



140 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the ground and showed not one flicker of response 
to the great War Chief's stirring eloquence. 

"What shall we do now?" demanded Cornstalk 
at last. "The Long Knives are coming. Shall we 
turn out and fight them.^ " 

Silence. 

"Shall we kill our squaws and children, and then 
fight until we are killed ourselves.^" persisted the 
stern old warrior. 

Still a dead silence. 

Cornstalk suddenly strode forward and struck 
his tomahawk deeply into the war post. 

" Since you will not fight, I will myself make peace," 
said he bitterly. 

The Indians agreed to Lord Dunmore's terms. 
They were to surrender all white prisoners and 
stolen horses then in the tribes, to give up all claim 
to any of the land south of the Ohio River, and to 
furnish hostages. They were very humble, all but 
Cornstalk. He agreed to the conditions, but through- 
out all the meetings his manner was one of haughty 
defiance ; and he addressed Lord Dunmore with fierce 
reproach and a fiery disdain that showed his total 
personal indifference to danger. It is said that: 
"The Virginians, who, like their Indian antagonists, 
prized skill in oratory only less than skill in war- 
fare, were greatly impressed by the Chieftain's 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 141 

eloquence, by his command of words, his clear 
distinct voice, his peculiar emphasis, and his singu- 
larly grand and majestic yet graceful bearing; they 
afterwards said that his oratory fully equalled that 
of Patrick Henry." 

Cornstalk, however, held honourably to his prom- 
ises, and did his best to live up to the terms of peace. 
Indeed in that manner he met his death; for less 
than a year after the opening of the Revolutionary 
War he came in to the fort at Mt. Pleasant to tell the 
commandant that, while he was, as always, anxious 
to keep the peace, the Indians were headstrong, 
and were probably about to go to war. He warned 
the whites that, in spite of his sentiments, if they 
did so, he would of course have to be true to his 
race and side with them. He and his companions 
stayed on as a sort of hostage for the time being. 
During this period, says Dodge, "Cornstalk held 
frequent conversations with the officers and took 
pleasure in describing to them the geography of the 
West, then little known. One afternoon, while he 
was engaged in drawing on the floor a map of the 
Missouri Territory, its watercourses and mountains, 
a halloo was heard from the forest, which he recog- 
nized as the voice of his son, Ellinipsico, a young 
warrior, whose courage and address were almost as 
celebrated as his own." The son had become un- 



142 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

easy over his father's absence and had come in 
search of him. 

The next day two white men went hunting from 
the fort, were waylaid and killed by some stray 
Indians. Their companions, hearing the shots, 
found the bodies, and at once, headed by their 
precious captain, a man named John Hall, rushed 
to the fort shouting: "Kill the red dogs in the 
fort!" The fort's other officers tried to inter- 
vene, but were swept aside. Cornstalk and his 
friends heard the cries, and recognized the situation. 

"Do not fear, my son," said Cornstalk compos- 
edly, "the Great Spirit has sent you here that we 
may die together." 

He rose calmly as the murderers burst into the 
room, and the next instant fell with seven bullets 
in his breast. Ellinipsico "continued still and 
passive, not even raising himself from his seat," and 
so met death. 

But this is in advance of our story. 

One chief of them all did not come to take part 
in the treaty making on the Scioto. That was the 
other great chief, Logan. When messengers were 
sent to summon him, he returned answer that he 
was a warrior, not a councillor. But as he would 
not come. Lord Dunmore sent to him an emissary, 
one named John Gibson, a man who had lived among 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 143 

the Indians, knew their language thoroughly, and 
who was to a great extent in their confidence. Gib- 
son at the time took down literally what Logan said 
to him, and afterwards stated that he had added 
nothing. The warrior said: 

"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever 
entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him not 
meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed 
him not? During the course of the last long and 
bloody war, Logan remained idle in his camp, an 
advocate of peace. Such was my love for the whites 
that my countrymen pointed as I passed and said, 
*Logan is the friend of the white man !' I had even 
thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of 
one man. Colonel Cresap [A mistake. Colonel Cresap 
had nothing to do with it], the last spring, in cold 
blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of 
Logan, not even sparing my women and children. 
There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of 
any living creature. This called on me for revenge. 
I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully 
glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at 
the beams of peace; but do not harbour the thought 
that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. 
He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who 
is there to mourn for Logan .^^ Not one!" 

Those who were present when John Gibson read 



144 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

this speech to the rough bordermen say that they 
were so greatly impressed by it that for days they 
talked it over around their campfires; and con- 
tinually tried to say it over to each other. 

The frontiersmen were disappointed. They had 
hoped to be able to carry the war further into the 
enemies' country; and they came close to mutiny 
when ordered to countermarch. But the job was 
done. It was just before the Revolutionary War, 
and there is no question but that it kept the tribes 
quiet through the first two years of that struggle, and 
so permitted the white man to get a foothold be- 
yond the mountains. If it had not been for this, 
in all probability our boundaries would have been 
fixed, when peace was negotiated, at the Alleghany 
Mountains; and Great Britain would now own 
all our West as she owns Canada. 

A writer named Hutchins gives an interesting 
glimpse of the delivery of captives by the Indians: 

"The Indians delivered us their captives with the 
utmost reluctance, shed torrents of tears over them, 
recommending them to the care of the commanding 
oflScer. They visited them from day to day, brought 
them meat, corn, skins, horses, and other matters, 
that were bestowed on them while in their families, 
accompanied with other presents and all the marks of 
the most sincere and tender affection. Nor did 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 145 

they stop here; but when the army marched, some 
of the Indians soHcited and obtained permission 
to accompany their captives to Fort Pitt, and em- 
ployed themselves in hunting and bringing provisions 
for them on the way." 



CHAPTER XI 

THE claims of the Algonquin branch to the 
lands south of the Ohio River being thus 
extinguished, there remained only the very 
shadowy claims of the Cherokees on the other side. 
If the Cherokees could be satisfied, then there would 
be at least a formal peace throughout the Kentucky 
country; and Daniel Boone could revert to his pet 
scheme of leading settlers into the new land without 
fear of a concerted effort to wipe him out, and with 
only the usual and inevitable small parties of ma- 
rauders to cope with. There is no doubt that he 
would on his own account have organized another 
expedition similar to the ill-fated first attempt, but 
this proved unnecessary. At this moment a soldier 
of fortune with a grandiose vision of his own came to 
the front. 

This was a man named Henderson. He had 
started life as a constable, but had soon worked up 
to be a judge of North Carolina. Contemporaries 
describe him as of great eloquence, both in public 
speaking and in conversation; of an agreeable and 
expansive personality; rather too lavish with his 

146 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 147 

money. In short, he was a typical promoter; and 
in these days would be booming real estate near Los 
Angeles, or wild-catting new districts for oil, or 
taking up far water rights in inaccessible mountains 
— and all on a big scale. In those days he conceived 
the idea of "buying" Kentucky from the Cherokees, 
offering the land to settlers on good terms, and so 
becoming the proprietor of a true kingdom. There 
were any amount of holes in the scheme. In the 
first place, the Cherokees could be said to own Ken- 
tucky only by a wide stretch of the imagination. 
In the second place, Virginia had every legal right to 
consider it a part of her back country. In the third 
place, it was illegal because a general law required 
the formal assent of governors and assemblies of 
the different provinces to ratify the purchase of any 
lands whatever from Indians. 

These things worried Henderson very little, though 
as a judge he must have been perfectly aware of 
them. He had several pretty good antidotes to all 
these facts. As, for instance, this was in the year 
1774, just before the Revolution, and the royal 
governors were probably too busy near home to 
bother about an expedition into the remote wilder- 
ness: the settlers knew nothing about the legal as- 
pects of the matter, but any one could safely bet they 
would not peacefully give up their land on any 



148 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

account once they had made their homes on it. At 
any rate, Judge Henderson's glowing optimism 
found seven others Hke himself with some capital, 
and the eight of them set eagerly about the busi- 
ness. 

The first thing to do was to deal with the Chero- 
kees; and the man selected for that job was Daniel 
Boone. Some maintain that Boone and Henderson 
had worked together on this scheme from the start; 
and that all of Boone's solitary adventuring had 
really been on behalf of this very scheme; but it 
seems much more likely that the reports the Hunter 
brought back suggested the idea to Henderson's 
quick imagination. It was natural that the men 
should get together, for their desires were now the 
same. 

Boone and Henderson at once visited the Cherokee 
towns, making their proposals. The Indians dele- 
gated one of their chiefs to return with the white men 
to examine the goods they offered as a purchase 
price. These consisted of about fifty thousand 
dollars' worth of arms, clothing, trinkets, and rum, 
which Henderson had collected in one spot, and 
which no doubt made an imposing show when 
heaped up in one or two cabins. At any rate, the 
delegate reported favourably, so Oconostota, the 
greatest of the Cherokee chiefs, issued a call to his 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 149 

tribesmen to assemble for the treaty. They gathered 
at a place called Sycamore Shoals, some twelve 
hundred strong; and after considerable dickering 
and speech making the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals 
was signed by which was made over all the land be- 
tween the Kentucky and the Cumberland rivers. 
There was considerable reluctance on the part of the 
Indians: and the signing was accompanied by warn- 
ings that the chiefs would not pretend to be guaran- 
tee against irresponsible acts by the younger 
warriors. 

"Brother," said old Oconostota to Boone, "the 
land beyond the mountains is a dark ground, a 
bloody ground." 

"Brother," said another chief, called Dragging 
Canoe, "there is a black cloud hanging over that 
land. We have given you a fine land, but I believe 
you will have much trouble in settling it." 

Indeed there was dissatisfaction almost im- 
mediately; for though the goods looked imposing in 
one pile, when divided each individual's share was 
very small. One warrior came forward exhibiting 
as his share of the whole transaction one shirt! 

"In a single day on this land we have sold," he 
complained, "I could kill enough deer to buy me a 
shirt like this!" 

Nevertheless, the treaty seems to have been fairly 



150 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

come at. The Cherokees knew perfectly that they 
had no real title to the country; they knew that this 
"sale" would not prevent their hunting there as 
long as the game lasted. It is recorded that, un- 
like most of this bargaining, no liquor was permitted 
until the discussions were over. 

Nor did Henderson care much about the validity 
of the title. All he wanted was some sort of a paper 
to go on. Immediately he sent Boone to cut a route 
through to the new possessions. 

The Scout picked thirty of the best backwoods- 
men to be had, and with them at once attacked the 
construction of the famous Wilderness Road which 
for many years thereafter was to swarm with the 
emigration to the West. It was at first, as these men 
made it, merely a trail, fit only for packhorses; but 
its grades, the selection of its route through the 
passes and over the rough country is a testimony 
to Boone's practical eye and engineering knowledge. 
With great skill he took advantage of buffalo roads, 
Indian traces, his own hunter's trail, and the War- 
rior Path of the Indians, connecting them up, cutting 
through the forests and dense canebrakes, blazing 
mile trees for distance. The job took them about 
ten weeks, which was very fast work, to reach the 
banks of the Kentucky River, where they thought 
their main troubles were over. But the Indians had 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 151 

been watching this invasion with growing un- 
easiness. The defeat at the Kanawha and the Treaty 
of Sycamore Shoals prevented them from any for- 
mal declaration of open war; but small bands were 
afoot, and before daybreak one of these attacked 
Boone's party. They managed to kill a negro 
servant and wounded two men, but were then driven 
off by the axemen. 

There was no further trouble for the moment. 
Boone's party pushed on to the place he had long 
since picked out as a site; and there started to put 
up cabins, and commenced a stockade. As they 
drew near the ground Boone had selected a great 
herd of buffalo made off, a wonderful sight, with the 
grown beasts compactly in the centre and the young 
calves playing and gambolling about on the flanks. 
Soon after Boone's party came other small bands 
of adventurers spying out the land, selecting home- 
sites, and also beginning to put up stockades. The 
immigration had begun, although the first-comers 
were all merely forerunners, without their families 
or household goods. They were all equally de- 
lighted with the country, amazed at the swarms of 
game. 

But now the hovering bands of Indians began to 
strike. The white men were so eager to go hunting; 
to find themselves plots of land; to do this, that, and 



152 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the other, as you or I would be in like circumstances, 
that they were apt to skimp such hard drudgery as 
cutting logs and putting up stockades. More white 
men could be expected soon, and if these first-comers 
wanted the pick of the land they must get very busy ! 
And what live man could resist the lure of the buffalo, 
the deer, the elk, the turkeys and clouds of wild 
pigeons! As a result the defensive works were 
neglected. Even at Boonesborough, as the new 
post was named, Boone could not induce his men to 
complete the simple stockade. So when the small 
Indian war parties finally swooped they got results, 
and several men were, as Boone spelled it, "killed 
and sculped." 

This brought about a panic among a great many 
of the newcomers. They had come into the country 
on the understanding that the Indians had made 
peace, and being "sculped" did not look very peace- 
ful to them! A great many became panic-stricken 
and started back for Kentucky, for they had less 
than no relish to be caught in an Indian war. They 
had seen such things at first hand. 

Boone himself was undaunted. He sent a letter 
to Henderson stating in unexcited terms the "sculp- 
ing," that the "people were very uneasy," and ad- 
vising him that it would be a very good idea if he 
would hurry up in support. Boone had no infor- 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 153 

mation as to whether Judge Henderson had, yet 
started on his way; but as a matter of fact, that 
vigorous and energetic gentleman, three days after 
the signing of the treaty, had left Wantaga with a 
party that included forty mounted riflemen, a body 
of negro slaves, forty packhorses, a drove of cattle, 
and a train of wagons with provisions, ammunition, 
seeds, farming implements — in short, all the necessi- 
ties for a permanent settlement. He had even 
brought the materials for making gunpowder. The 
eight adventurers who were backing the scheme cer- 
tainly had confidence enough to sink considerable 
money in it! Indeed, five of them in all accom- 
panied the expedition. 

At Powell's Valley, just below Cumberland Gap, 
they had to abandon the wagons, as was to have been 
expected, and to go forward with only the pack ani- 
mals. In anticipation of this, probably, a post had 
already been established at Powell's Valley under 
Joseph Martin, in whose charge, for the time being, 
were left the heavy materials and the wagons. 

Boone's messenger with his letter met them when 
they were fairly in Cumberland Gap. The party had 
been enjoying the usual diflaculties of travel with 
numbers of packhorses in new and difficult country. 
It rained a great deal, and at times they encountered 
heavy snowstorms so thick that one of the men got 



154 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

lost. The trail was very steep. Much chopping 
away of down timber had to be done. The packs 
were always shifting or slipping, with the accom- 
panying row and trouble and confusion. There were 
many streams, most of them in flood. One day 
they had to cross fifty times "by very bad foards," 
into deep water, with steep rotten banks down which 
the horses must be forced to plunge, and bad bottom 
that mired and threw them and all but drowned 
them. Sometimes the packs had to be ferried across 
on rafts and the horses swum. A packed animal 
in thick timber is always getting stuck between trees, 
turning his saddle and twisting his load. In these 
forests it was a rare thing to find good grazing handy, 
and yet the beasts must be kept fed and strong. 
Such an outfit, by its very nature, is vulnerable to 
attack, especially in a wooded mountain country 
that forces it to one definite route. Scouts had to 
range far afield. Were it not for the confidence that 
at last a real peace had been arranged with both the 
northern and southern tribes, you can readily see 
that such a journey would be filled with a deadly 
anxiety. 

Nor were their day's troubles over with the making 
of camp. In spite of the peace it was realized that 
precautions must be taken against small bands of 
marauders, so a nightly watch must be kept; no 




And so in this pathless, blinded forest .... the Indians moved, 
invisible, silent .... awaiting the moment to strike 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 155 

light matter for wearied men. And then in the 
morning the packing must be done. 

As everyone knows who has had anything to do 
with this sort of wilderness travel, one of the most 
annoying of the petty troubles is the straying of 
horses. The animals must eat, after their heavy 
day's labour; and so they must be turned loose to feed 
on the natural pasturage. For a time, until the 
first of their hunger is appeased, they stay in a 
compact band near home; but after a while they 
begin to wander in search of choice bits. By morn- 
ing they may be scattered over quite an extent of 
territory. This is not so bad for one who under- 
stands the habits of the beasts and can follow a 
spoor; but every once in a while a single horse will be 
seized with a travelling fit and will start straight out 
for somewhere indefinite. He doesn't know him- 
self where he is going; but he is on his way. Some- 
times he takes a little band of the others with him. 
He never travels faster than a slow, steady walk; but 
that gait can cover an aggravating distance if con- 
tinuous. When overtaken he stands still and looks 
at you with a mild surprise. 

There is no way by which the delays caused by a 
search for strayed stock can be avoided when the 
journey is long. If you picket them anywhere but on 
a flat open plain they will soon tangle themselves up 



156 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

or shorten their ropes so they have only a small 
circle in which to find grass. Hobbling may help 
in catching the horse; but a wise animal soon learns 
to travel nearly as well with hobbles as when free. 
If the animals are to be kept strong and fit for a long 
journey, they cannot be corralled at night, for grass 
is not as sustaining as grain and they must have 
every opportunity to fill up. So the wilderness 
traveller learns to read tracks, and makes up his 
mind that every once in a while he will be delayed 
in his day's journey. 

A man named William Colk, who kept a most amus- 
ing diary of this trip, gives a vivid picture of some of 
this horse misfortune that might have been written 
of any trip to-day into the Rockies or Sierras: 

"I turned my horse to drive before me and he got 
scard ran away threw Down the Saddel Bags and 
broke three of our powder goards and Abram's beast 
Burst open a walet of com and lost a good Deal and 
made a turrabel flustration amongst the Reast of 
the Horses Drake's mair run against a sapling and 
noct it down we cacht them all again and went on." 

And at this time of the year the plot was com- 
plicated by the abundance of yellow- jackets' nests. 
When a horse stumbled against one of these and 
turned loose its vicious swarms there was always a 
grand stampede of man and beast. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 157 

Boone's message was a facer. It shows how 
seriously these people took even the bare chance of 
an Indian war when I tell you that that very night 
several men started on the back track. The next 
day the expedition encountered the first of numerous 
bands of refugees fleeing to the comparative safety 
of the settlements. They were frightened to death, 
saw Indians behind every tree and devils in every 
shadow, and you can imagine each had a story 
wilder than the last. They talked massacre, raid, 
and burning, and predicted that in a fortnight there 
would not remain a white man in Kentucky. Hen- 
derson had the greatest diflSculty in holding his own 
party together in the face of these alarms; and real- 
ized that it would be vitally necessary to get word to 
Boone at once that the slow-moving pack trains were 
on the way. A young man named Cocke gallantly 
volunteered to carry the message, and actually did 
so in the face of real and imagined dangers. 

But our sturdy Hunter had no notion of being 
frightened out of the country, and his influence and 
reputation held with him most of the original party. 
There is no doubt but that, had it not been for him, 
Kentucky would have been deserted by the white man; 
and so, together with all our West, have been adjudged 
British in the settlement after the Revolution. 

Henderson and his party reached the new settle- 



158 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

merit on the Judge's birthday, and were welcomed 
by the firing of rifles and loud shouts. There were 
now eighty people in the settlement; the Indian 
panic had been shown by the scouts to be based on 
the chance raids of a few small parties; Cornstalk, 
chivalrous as always, came out in strong denuncia- 
tion of these outrages and vehemently ordered all 
warriors to keep away from the white man's country. 
The work of the new settlement was systematized. 
Hunters were deputed from the sixty-five riflemen 
to supply game. This was no light matter, for 
already, owing to skin hunting and the movement 
away from the fort of the game herds, the hunters 
had to range fifteen or twenty miles away in order 
to encounter wild animals in the desired numbers. 
Of course there was what we would call abundance 
nearer home; but these men wanted meat quickly 
and in quantity. Other members of the community 
planted corn, working in common, appearing every 
morning at a blast of a horn and alternately labouring 
in the fields or standing guard as the "captain" 
directed. Still others, under Boone himself, chopped 
out a clearing: felling trees, shaping and notching 
logs, splitting clapboards and "shakes," hewing 
puncheons, in preparation for the building of a real 
fort and stockade, and comfortable cabins for those 
who were to follow. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 159 

This fort was typical of the times. It stood on a 
slight elevation, not far from the river banks, and 
consisted of an enclosure two hundred and fifty 
feet long by a hundred and seventy -five feet wide. 
The cabins, of which there were about thirty, were 
built so that the backs of them formed part of the 
walls of this enclosure. They were of course pierced 
with loopholes, and their roofs pitched only one 
way, away from the back walls, so that a man could 
lie on the slope and shoot over the edge, and also 
so that firebrands hurled on top could be put out 
without exposure. The spaces between the cabins 
were filled with the stockade walls. To make the 
stockade, a deep trench must be dug; logs placed 
upright in the trench; the trench filled in and tamped 
down; and the cracks in the logs filled up to be 
bullet proof. At each corner were two-story block 
houses with the upper stories projecting. Wide 
gates were located opposite one another. 

Now all this was, as you can readily imagine, a 
tremendous labour. In view of the fact that Indian 
trouble, at least on any great scale, seemed to be 
settled and in view of the fact that other construc- 
tive necessary work was crying to be done, it is not 
surprising that in spite of Boone's best efforts the 
work dragged. 

In May, the "fields" being planted, these back- 



160 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

woodsmen met under a great tree and formally or- 
ganized themselves, adopting a constitution, pass- 
ing laws, holding elections, all in due order. It is 
noteworthy that Daniel Boone had much to do 
with laws as to game protection and improving the 
breed of horses. Within a week the little settlement 
was thrown into great excitement by receiving news 
of the Battle of Lexington. The backwoodsmen 
were all patriots and enthusiastically pledged their 
support to the new cause; but at present there did 
not seem to be much they could do about it. In 
fact, just at this time, they were having all they 
could do to maintain themselves. The newly planted 
crops were still in the future; the provisions that 
had been brought were rapidly giving out; there 
was almost no salt; game was withdrawing from the 
immediate vicinity. There was no bread, so they 
pretended that the white meat of turkeys was bread. 
"Even big meat was none too easy to get," Mr. 
Ranck tells us, "but Judge Henderson's black Dan 
managed to keep a supply, and with some vegetables 
from the fort garden, *cats' (catfish) from the river, 
and milk," they managed to get along. 

The news of Lexington was valuable in one way: 
for both Boone and Henderson used a report that 
Lord Dunmore was trying to stir up the Indians to 
take sides with the British, to get the fort com- 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 161 

pleted. All the cabins in the fort proper, however, 
were not continuously occupied. Some of the set- 
tlers preferred to live on their farms near by; but 
they all came in promptly enough at any alarm. 

About a month later Boone, satisfied that at last 
the place was strongly enough fortified to justify 
trusting his family to it, set out to get them. His 
old friend Richard Callaway went with him, to do 
likewise; and also a party of men who were to bring 
back salt from the supplies in Powell Valley, where 
Henderson had left his wagons. Salt was by now 
very badly needed, not only for eating, but because 
of the impossibility of preserving wild meat in the 
warm weather without it. The men found the salt 
all right, but so distrustful were they of the wilder- 
ness, and so confident were they of Boone, that they 
squatted down in the Powell Valley to await his re- 
turn with his family, and nothing would induce them 
to budge. Judge Henderson wrote in a letter: 
"Our salt is exhausted, and the men who went with 
Colonel Boone for that article have not returned, 
and until he comes the devil could not drive the 
others this way." Indeed this confidence was shared 
by many others, for when Boone started back 
with his people, his horses, his cattle, and his dogs, 
his provisions and household goods, he found him- 
self joined by quite a number of other families 



162 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

bound not only for Boonesborough but for Harrod's 
new station, and two other small forts. Even after 
these had left him at "the hazel patch" in Kentucky 
he was still at the head of twenty-seven rifles. The 
older boys drove the cattle, which were usually in 
the lead to set the pace; the little children were 
packed in baskets made of hickory withes slung on 
gentle horses, or else packed between rolls of bedding. 
The scouts ranged the forest far and wide. 

His return with these additions to the population 
— and the salt — was received with great rejoicings 
by the men left at Boonesborough. The infant 
settlement had lost heavily even of its first popu- 
lation. A good proportion of those who had first 
come out were merely adventurers for excitement, 
good hunting, and to satisfy their curiosity. When 
they had satisfied all these desires, they drifted back 
home or farther afield. Others had come out merely 
to file on claims of land, after which they returned to 
look after their genuine farms back home, intending 
to move to Kentucky later for permanent settlement. 
And of course there were the timid who were scared 
by the Indian rumours. At one time Boonesborough 
was actually down to twelve rifles! though the 
numbers fluctuated widely. 

Boone's party arrived in early September. His 
wife and daughter, Jemima, were the first women 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 163 

to set foot on the banks of the Kentucky River. 
It is amusing to read of the immediate effect of the 
presence of the gentler sex on the bordermen. "The 
men, and especially the younger ones, immediately 
improved in appearance, for there was a sudden 
craze for shaving and haircutting," says Ranck, 
"An ash hopper, soap kettle, and clothes line were 
set up. Hickory brooms and home-made wash- 
boards multiplied. The sound of the spinning wheel 
was heard in the land, and an occasional sight could 
be had of a little looking glass, a patchwork quilt, 
knitting needles, or a turkey-tail fan." And we can 
imagine the rapture of the youngest Boone children 
at the sights to be seen and the things to be done. 
Nevertheless, we can also imagine that Mrs. Boone 
and Miss Jemima were glad, some weeks later, to see 
Richard Callaway come in at the head of a party 
that included three married women and quite a bevy 
of young ladies. The fort began to look like a real 
settlement, with its houses, its women and children, 
its domestic animals and its planted crops. Boone's 
dream had at last come true. 

It is related that with Callaway came a man 
named Pogue who was "an ingenious contriver." 
Nowadays he would probably advertise as a Handy 
Man. These pioneers could do the big things well, 
but were not so deft when it came to making or 



164 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

mending spinning wheels, churns, washtubs, piggins, 
and noggins. A piggin is a pail of which two of the 
staves are longer than the others, and a cross piece is 
fastened to them by way of a handle. A noggin is 
a smaller vessel, also with staves like a pail, one of 
which is left long, somewhat like a dipper with a 
perpendicular handle. 

The crops had come in. The women took up their 
regular occupations, the dairies, the cooking, spin- 
ning, weaving, washing, carrying the water; the men 
assumed their routine jobs of building, clearing, 
hunting, planting, cultivating, and the defense. In 
making the clearings the trees must first be girdled, 
to deaden them; then felled, and cut into logs that 
could be handled; then "rolled" out of the way. 
The stumps were generally left; and they made 
wonderful individual breastworks, both for friend 
and foe, in wartimes. Everything seemed pros- 
perous. Men continued to come in, some of them 
already famous, or destined to be so, such as Simon 
Kenton, the scout; George Rogers Clark, the hero- 
to-be of Vincennes; Benjamin Logan, the Indian 
fighter, and many others. The Indians were ap- 
parently resolved to fulfil the terms of the peace 
treaty. Two hundred and thirty acres of corn had 
been raised; the domestic animals were doing well; 
fruit orchards had been planted; laws made; there 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 165 

were twelve women in the country and close to two 
hundred men. 

Then just two days before Christmas this peace- 
ful content was rudely shattered. Two boys, 
named McQuinney and Saunders, crossed the river, 
and climbed the hills opposite the fort. They were 
just out for fun, and never dreamed of taking their 
rifles with them. The settlers had been so long 
undisturbed that only the old-timers went always 
armed. The boys had the bad luck to run across a 
little roving band of Shawnees. It is doubtful 
whether the savages considered themselves on the 
warpath; but the temptation of such easy prey was 
too much for them. Four days later, after much 
anxious search, the body of McQuinney was found 
in a cornfield about three miles away. Saunders 
was never heard of again. 

The settlement was thrown into great grief and 
alarm. No man could tell what this portended^ 
Scouting parties took the woods; the families moved 
in; men went armed; the old, comfortable, easy life 
vanished. Only some time later was it known that 
the Indians numbered only a half dozen; that Corn- 
stalk himself had gone to Fort Pitt to denounce 
them and disclaim responsibility; and that a general 
Indian war was not to be feared. 



CHAPTER XII 

NEARLY seven months went by peacefully as 
far as Indians were concerned. Then on a 
still, hot midsummer Sunday afternoon, 
following the customary Bible reading that re- 
placed church, Jemima Boone and her friends, 
Elizabeth and Frances Callaway, took one of the 
elm- or birch-bark canoes and started out down the 
river. They had gone but a short distance when 
their craft struck a little sandbar running out from a 
point. This was no unusual occurrence, especially 
at such times of low water; and the three girls 
laughingly argued as to which should step off into 
the shallow water to shove the light craft adrift. At 
this instant five Indians darted from the thick cane- 
brake at the water's edge and seized them. 

So sudden and unexpected was this appearance 
that the girls were dragged from the canoe and into 
the thick cover before they had gathered their 
scattered wits: and once there the threat of the 
tomahawk was enough to keep them silent. It is 
related that "Miss Betsy," the oldest, managed to 

166 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 167 

smack one of the Indians on the head with her paddle 
before it was snatched from her hands. 

The Indians rushed their captives at full speed up 
a thickly wooded ravine to the top of the high- 
forested hills that roughly parallel the river. There 
they took a more leisurely gait and struck out across 
country with the intention of hitting the "Warrior's 
Trace" that led to the Ohio River. 

The girls' absence caused no uneasiness until 
milking time; which fact afforded the savages sev- 
eral hours' start. Then the alarm was sounded by 
one of the hunters who had paddled down river to 
meet them. The abandoned canoe and the plain 
trail to be read near the banks of the river clearly 
enough told the story. Immediately the fort was in 
a turmoil. Men were summoned; and shortly two 
parties set out — about twenty men in all — one, 
mounted, under the command of Callaway; the other, 
afoot, under Boone. Callaway with his horsemen 
pushed off to a crossing of the Licking River in hopes 
of intercepting the fugitives, if — as seemed probable 
— they should cross there. Boone and eight men, 
three of whom were lovers of the girls, were to follow 
the trail. 

It was now so late that little could be done that 
night, except follow the plain tracks to the point 
where the Indians began to cover them. Even these 



168 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

expert woodsmen could not pursue in the dark for- 
ests after night had fallen. But next morning by 
daylight they were on the scent and for thirty miles 
they puzzled out a trail blinded by every savage 
ingenuity. It is a striking example of the wood- 
craft of these men; for they not only followed the 
trail, but they must have followed it at high speed 
to have travelled faster than the Indians in flight. 
They were considerably helped by the ingenuity of 
the girls, who tore off bits of their clothing and left 
them on bushes whenever they could do so without 
discovery by the Indians' sharp eyes; broke twigs; 
or dragged their feet. To do this without the knowl- 
edge of men as keen as Indian warriors was a tri- 
umph in itself. Boone now decided that the Indians 
would be travelling less cautiously, so he boldly 
struck across country in what he considered the 
probable direction of flight, thus gaining some 
miles, if his reasoning was correct. It proved to be 
so. The tracks were discovered in a buffalo path; 
and there was now no attempt at covering the trail. 

Much encouraged they pushed on more rapidly. 
Ten miles farther on they caught sight of the In- 
dians making camp. 

This was a welcome sight; but the next procedure 
had to be carried out with the greatest caution. No 
one knew better than Boone that the Indians' first 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 169 

act, in event of a surprise, would be to attempt to 
murder the captives. The girls, "tattered, torn, and 
despairing" were huddled at the foot of a tree only 
a few feet from the fire. Boone selected three of 
the most skilled of his men; and the four crept 
inch by inch nearer the fire. They were advancing 
against the sharpest, the most highly trained senses 
in the world, and every man there knew that a 
single false move, a solitary broken twig, even the 
rustle of a leaf would the next instant be followed 
by the crash of tomahawks on the poor girls' de- 
fenseless skulls. They held their breath in an 
agony of suspense. The advance seemed to consume 
hours. Finally, at the signal, the four men fired, and 
the others rushed forward with yells. Two of the 
Indians were killed and the other three were so com- 
pletely surprised that, as one of the participants 
writes: "We sent them off without their moccasins, 
and not one of them with so much as a knife or a 
tomahawk." 

When the rescuers returned in triumph to Boones- 
bo rough, they found that another band of warriors 
had during their absence burned an outlying cabin 
belonging to Nathaniel Hart, and ruined his young 
apple trees. Hart was with the rescuing expedition. 
The scouts and hunters began to bring in news of 
other small parties of Indians outlying around all 



170 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the other settlements. They were nowhere in any 
large numbers, but, on the other hand, the small 
forces were everywhere. It became evident that 
the old period of security was over. The outlying 
settlers moved into the stockade, only venturing 
forth, armed, to tend their crops and their animals. 
Everywhere in the forest the Indians prowled 
singly or in small parties, watching for white men to 
shoot as one would watch for deer. They avoided 
contest as much as they could, lurking behind stump, 
rock, or tree until a sure and unexpected shot could 
be had. All night a solitary savage would lie behind 
some ambush to take a shot at the first man to emerge 
from the fort in the morning, and then with a wild 
yell, whatever the result, would disappear into the 
forest. Everywhere the settler found his cattle and 
horses driven off and his sheep and hogs shot down 
with arrows, for although the Indians were by now 
well armed with rifles, they carried bows and arrows 
for this purpose in order to save precious ammuni- 
tion. 

Of course, the usual precipitate emigration of the 
more timid at once began. Three hundred were 
said to have returned across the mountains; and 
the entire military force of Kentucky was reduced 
to about a hundred. There were only twenty-two 
armed men left in Boonesborough. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 171 

Nevertheless, all was not dark and gloomy. Three 
weeks after the rescue just described Squire Boone, 
in his capacity of Baptist Elder, was called upon to 
officiate at the marriage of Samuel Henderson and 
Betsy Callaway. This was the first wedding in 
Kentucky. Incidentally, within the year Frances 
Callaway and Jemima Boone married John Holder 
and Flanders Callaway, two of the young men who 
had helped rescue them. At the wedding of "Miss 
Betsy" there was "dancing to fiddle music by the 
light of tallow dips, and a treat of home-grown" water- 
melons of which the whole station was proud." 

For some time thus the fires of warfare smouldered 
on the frontier. British agents were everywhere 
inciting the Shawnees and Cherokees. The em- 
ployment of savages and the adoption of a species 
of warfare that could not fail to be horrible was a 
blot on the British name and is the chief reason why 
the natural antagonism of the Revolution was deep- 
ened to a hatred that has lasted beyond its normal 
span. 

In the meantime, the proprietory government of 
Judge Henderson came to an end. It was in direct 
conflict with the rights of the older colonies; illegal; 
and in the end irksome. Had Henderson been con- 
tent to sell his land outright to the settlers he 
might have kept their support; but he made the mis- 



172 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

take of charging them a certain rental each year 
in addition to the purchase price. This the inde- 
pendent borderers did not like, so when the colony 
of Virginia refused further to recognize Henderson's 
government there were no very strong objections 
raised. The Judge filled an important role in the 
history of our west. 

That winter was a bad one, what with the ever- 
increasing Indian attacks, the bad news from the war, 
the constantly dwindling numbers of the whites, and 
the dread of what was probably to follow when 
spring, the usual time for the opening of the war- 
path, should arrive. Every few days brought ac- 
counts of fresh attacks, more deaths. Ten men met 
at Licking Creek by Indians and defeated; three 
killed. A large party attacked McClelland 's fort, 
killing and wounding several men. Two men killed 
at the Shawanese spring. The Indians attempted to 
cut off a small party from the fort; four men wounded 
and cattle killed. A small party attacked and 
scalped Hugh Wilson. A large party attacked the 
stragglers around the fort. Such are a few of the 
entries in a diary of the time. In these difficult 
circumstances Boone's figure towers commandingly. 
He was described as having a "quick perception of 
expedients, much prudence and caution, unyielding 
perseverance, and determined valour, combined with 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 173 

superior strength and activity of person." Cer- 
tainly he was looked to for advice, for encouragement, 
for help, and for leadership in every crisis. He had 
little assistance in the point of numbers, but great 
help in the quality of the men who remained. There 
were twenty-two riflemen at Boonesborough, sixty- 
five at Harrodsburgh, and fifteen at Logans; that was 
all. Boone organized a small scout corps whose 
business it was to keep in the forest, two by two, 
feeling cautiously in all directions for the enemy, 
reading the signs, and coming in to the settlements 
only for fresh supplies of ammunition or to report. 
Simon Kenton was the most skilful of these, and 
one of the most bold. He was a big powerful man, 
standing well over six feet tall in his moccasins, with 
blond hair and a frank, open countenance. Next 
to Boone he was perhaps the greatest scout of them 
all; and he fell short of Boone, not in skill or in 
courage, but in coolness and judgment. His life in 
the forest at this time was like a romance: sleeping 
out without fire, skulking through the woodland, 
hovering on the flanks of his enemies, striking when 
the moment seemed right, and thoroughly enjoying 
it all. Several times he was taken prisoner. Eleven 
times he ran the gauntlet. Again and again he 
was within an inch of torture and death, but always 
either escaped or was reprieved. Once the famous 



174 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

renegade Simon Girty recognized and took pity on 
him. And to him and his brother scouts and rang- 
ers in the forest was due much of the credit for the 
persistence of the whites. Again and again their 
timely warnings assembled the settlers in the stock- 
ades before the savages could accomplish their sur- 
prise. 

The two men assigned by Boone as scouts for 
Boonesborough itself were Simon Kenton and 
Thomas Brooks. They had a big job, and they did 
it well; but two men could not always cover an entire 
countryside. Early in March a party of Shawnees 
under a celebrated chief named Blackfish were lurk- 
ing just outside the clearing waiting for a chance, 
Kenton had known of their presence in the country, 
and was close on their trail, but could not arrive at 
the fort before them. He was too well acquainted 
with Indians to try to get in until after dark, when 
he succeeded in slipping safely past, but too late to 
prevent the killing of two of the garrison. On the 
twenty-fourth of April again the Indians surrounded 
the fort a hundred strong, and just at a time when 
Kenton was at home for some purpose. For some 
good reason that we do not know the white men 
thought this a small party. Men like Boone and 
Kenton were not easily deceived, and they knew the 
various Indian stratagems well. One of the simplest 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 175 

was to lure the garrison out of a fort in pursuit of a 
small party and then ambush it with a larger. Boone 
knew this as you know your alphabet. Therefore, 
there must have been some very good reason never 
recorded why he was deceived on this occasion. 
It looks as though the wily Blackfish must have out- 
done himself. 

At any rate a man named Daniel Goodman was 
walking alone across the clearing outside the fort 
when an Indian, with a yell of triumph, leaped for- 
ward from behind a tree and tomahawked and 
scalped him. Unfortunately for the exulting savage 
Simon Kenton happened to be standing near the 
fort gate, and, as always with these scouts, he 
carried his rifle across his forearm. It was a long, 
quick shot; but Kenton dropped his man. At the 
report a half-dozen savages rose like quail and 
scattered for cover. Immediately the men of the 
garrison dashed in pursuit. It is probable, from the 
fact that Kenton was in the fort, that he had brought 
news of the customary small band, and that the 
large war party had followed in after their decoys. 
At any rate the white men were suddenly fired upon 
from all sides, and at once rushed upon by over- 
whelming numbers of savages. If the Indians had 
known enough to keep to rifle fire they would prob- 
ably have killed every man, but the powerful white 



176 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

men, fighting in a compact group, were able to force 
their way back to the clearing. Kenton killed three 
Indians with his own hand. 

At the first fire Boone fell with a shattered ankle. 
Instantly an Indian leaped from behind a tree, his 
tomahawk upraised. Two jumps took him to the 
prostrate man. In another instant the weapon 
would have crashed into Boone's skull, but Simon 
Kenton, ever ready, killed the Indian with one of 
his famous quick snap-shots. Then the scout lifted 
his helpless captain with one arm, and with the other 
fought his way back to the fort gate. It is recorded 
that when he laid Boone down, the great Hunter 
said — "Well, Simon, you are a fine fellow"; and it 
is further recorded that Kenton was as elated and 
proud of this as a dog with two tails. Which little 
incident is an illuminating commentary on both 
men. Having failed in their stratagem, the Indians 
withdrew. 

The broken ankle laid Boone up for several 
months. Nevertheless, he was able to direct many 
a day-and-night defense from his room. You would 
think that a strict defensive would have suited the 
most exacting, but once these bold riflemen actually 
ventured clear to the Ohio River, had two little 
skirmishes and won both of them. This was just 
to show the enemy that they were still going strong; 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 177 

for with their small numbers they could not hope to 
accomplish much else. 

Two weeks later the Indians made a really serious 
attempt. Kenton and Brookes this time managed 
to bring warning, so there was no surprise. But 
the savages came in great numbers, and evidently 
under good leadership, for they sent detachments to 
make demonstration against the other two stations 
in order to prevent their dispatching re enforce- 
ments. 

Then commenced a most vigorous attack that 
continued without intermission for forty -eight hours. 
The Indians were as ten to one, and they kept up an 
incessant fire, and made unremitting attempts to burn 
down the stockade. The forest resounded with wild 
yells and the roll of musketry. Inside, the little force 
had not a moment's rest. The portholes must be 
continuously manned, the fire continuously main- 
tained, so that no savage would be able to creep for- 
ward. The women fought side by side with the men, 
taking their turn at the portholes, melting bullets, 
loading the rifles and handing them forward, caring 
for the wounded, cooking the food. All the wiles 
and stratagems of siege warfare they had to guess 
and forestall. At the end of the forty-eight hours 
the Indians suddenly and quietly withdrew. After 
it had been thoroughly established by the scouts that 



178 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

this was not another stratagem the gates were 
thrown open and the famished cattle and the wearied 
defenders poured forth into the blessed open. 

There were many similar attacks on the three re- 
maining forts: all very much alike, but all exciting 
enough to the defenders, you may be sure. In the 
frontier annals are many striking tales of heroism. 
For example, one of these border stockades was 
once surrounded so suddenly and after so long a 
period of immunity that the settlers were caught 
with their water reservoirs nearly empty. As yet 
the Indians had not made their attack, nor even 
declared themselves, and were lurking in the forests 
round about awaiting the opportunity for a sur- 
prise. They did not yet know that the settlers were 
aware of their presence. Here was a terrible situ- 
ation: without water the siege that was to follow 
was sure to prove fatal, not only because of thirst, 
but because without water it would be impossible to 
quench flames. At this juncture the women made 
a proposal. 

"It is certain death for men to try to reach the 
spring" said they, "on the other hand, the Indians 
believe that they are yet undiscovered, so perhaps 
they would not attack us. It is usual for the women 
to get water, and if we go to the spring as we always 
do, they will then surely think we do not know of 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 179 

their presence. And as they hope to surprise the 
fort they probably will let us go and come." 

It took a long argument to convince the men. 
They could not bear the idea of sending their wives, 
their daughters, their sweethearts out unprotected 
fairly into the hands of a cruel and merciless foe. 
Nevertheless, this was the only possible way, and at 
length it was agreed. 

So all the women and girls, down even to the 
little things of five and six, took every utensil that 
would carry water and sauntered out from the fort 
to the spring. All must look natural. The least 
sign of fear or a suspicion that all was not as usual 
would bring on an instant attack. They must walk 
slowly, in little groups, talking and laughing care- 
lessly. At the spring they must fill their utensils 
in due order, without haste, keeping up still their 
careless talk; and then at last they must return 
leisurely to the fort, not in the compact group that 
would give them comfort, but straggling naturally 
along. All the time they felt the glaring bright 
stare of the savages concealed behind the leaves of 
the thick undergrowth, sometimes so close that the 
mere outstretching of an arm would have sufficed to 
bring down the fatal tomahawk. Behind the logs 
of the palisades the white men, too, watched in an 
agony, holding their breath with suspense, ready 



180 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

at the first whoop to rush forth to sell their lives 
as dearly as possible. The very forest seemed to 
have fallen silent with the deadly portent. Yet 
these women and children played out their parts to 
perfection, so naturally and easily as to deceive an 
audience the most critical and hostile in the world. 
Only when they had reached the very shadow of 
the stockade did some of the littlest girls begin to 
crowd forward against their mothers' skirts. 

Another incident at another place was not quite 
so happy. The stockade, after sufiFering considerable 
privation, was overjoyed to see approaching a relief 
expedition of men and packhorses, bringing with 
them munitions and provisions. So delighted were 
the settlers that they fired off all their guns at once 
by way of salute. This scared the horses so badly 
that they broke loose and ran away, provisions and 
all, and were never recovered ! 

On the 25th of July, however, the bad times were 
for the moment ended by the arrival of a hundred and 
forty-five men sent by Virginia and North Carolina 
in answer to Boone's urgent messages. The Colo- 
nies were having their hands full enough with the 
British at this time, and could ill spare even this 
small body of troops, but it was felt that the bor- 
derers had earned a little respite! 



CHAPTER XIII 

THAT respite they utilized in characteristic 
fashion. After assuring themselves a supply 
of meat by the hunting they had of late to 
accomplish by stealth, the hardy frontiersmen set 
out in numerous small expeditions to hunt Indians. 
These were literally hunting expeditions, and the 
men conducting them lurked in the forest as wolves 
lurk for prey. Many were the single combats; the 
stratagems; the surprises; the bold forays. It was 
about this time that Simon Kenton with two men, 
scouting in the heart of the Indians' own country 
north of the Ohio River, actually managed at night 
to steal all the horses from an Indian village, about 
a hundred and fifty in number. In spite of the 
encumbrance of driving such a band through wooded 
country they reached the banks of the Ohio safely 
on the morning of the second day. The river at 
that point was very wide and deep, and unfortunately 
a gale was blowing that raised quite a heavy sea. 
Kenton and his companions could not induce the 
animals to face the swim. They could of course 
have escaped easily enough, but with character- 

181 



182 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

istic reckless obstinacy they kept on trying at 
different points. In this instance they cut it too 
fine: the Indians overtook them; one white was 
killed, one escaped, and Kenton was captured. It 
is interesting to know that our old acquaintance 
Blackfish was the chief of the Indians: and that the 
first thing he did was to make careful inquiry as to 
whether Kenton was acting under Boone's command 
to steal the horses, or on his own initiative. In one 
case it was an act of war; in the other just a plain 
stealing expedition. Kenton replied that he had 
done it of his own accord, and thereby entered into 
a long experience of torture and captivity. 

Peck gives an interesting impression of Boone at 
this period : 

"As dangers thickened, and appearances grew 
more alarming, as scouts came in with rumours of 
Indians seen here and there, and as the hardy and 
bold woodsmen sat around their campfires with 
loaded rifle at hand rehearsing for the twentieth 
time the tale of noble daring or hair-breadth escape, 
Boone would sit silent, apparently not heeding the 
conversation, employed in repairing the rents in his 
hunting shirt and leggings, moulding bullets, or 
cleaning his rifle. Yet the eyes of the garrison were 
on him. Concerning Indian signs he was an oracle. 
Sometimes with one or two trusty companions, but 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 183 

more frequently alone, as night closed in he would 
steal away noiselessly into the woods, to reconnoitre 
the surrounding wilderness; and in the daytime 
stealthily would he creep along, his trusty rifle resting 
on his arm, ready for the least sign of danger; his 
keen, piercing eyes glancing into every thicket or 
canebrake, or watching intently for signs of the wily 
enemy. Accustomed to range the country as a 
hunter and a scout, he would frequently meet the 
approaching travellers on the road and pilot them 
into the settlement while his rifle supplied them with 
provisions. He was ever more ready to aid the com- 
munity or engage in public service than to attend 
to his private interests." 

These individual raids and combats had the effect 
of impressing the Shawnees. From the hilltops 
they had seen Colonel Bowman's reenforcements 
marching in. The Colonel, suspecting that such an 
audience would be watching, had skilfully deployed 
his men in such a manner as to make the most of 
their numbers. The Shawnees had returned with 
exaggerated tales. It must be remembered that as 
yet the peace treaty was supposed to be in force; 
however, it might actually be broken. The chief- 
tains were not yet ready to come out openly on the 
British side, although they were accepting arms, am- 
munition, and presents. 



184 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

But a new difficulty arose. Again the supply 
of salt at Boonesborough became exhausted. Owing 
to the constant alarms of the summer just past the 
variety of food had decreased until now venison, 
cornbread, and turnips were all that remained. 
This was a monotonous enough diet, but it was 
particularly insipid without salt. Sickness threat- 
ened. By Christmas the situation became desperate. 
The long journey over the mountains for such a 
commodity was appalling; and as it was now mid- 
winter, and as Indians were rarely on the warpath 
at that time of year, it was agreed that a party of 
the settlers should try boiling out a supply from the 
salt springs at Blue Licks. This was no light job. 
It was necessary to boil down from five to eight 
hundred gallons of the water to produce a single 
bushel. So you can imagine the time it would take 
to get an adequate supply with only makeshift 
cooking kettles. 

Boone gathered a party of thirty men from the 
three forts, partly of the borderers, partly of the 
militia re enforcements. With a few packhorses 
carrying only the kettles, axes, and bedding they 
started out. For food they were to depend en- 
tirely on Boone's rifle. The winter was a severe 
one, and even at the salt making around the fire 
the little party suffered acutely. It hindered the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 185 

work, but after some weeks they sent back three 
men with the laden packhorses. They got through 
safely, to the great joy of the people. 

But about the second week in February the work 
came to an end with dramatic suddenness. The 
weather was intensely cold; so cold that when Boone, 
hunting in a blinding snowstorm, encountered a 
large party of Indians, he was too benumbed to 
outrun the first dash of their young men. With his 
characteristic good sense he offered no resistance 
whatever when once he saw that resistance would 
be useless; but dropping the butt of his long rifle on 
the ground he laughed good-naturedly as though the 
joke were on him. Instantly he was surrounded by 
a large war party, curious, triumphant, overjoyed, 
for Boone was instantly recognized. Indeed, in 
this party were his captors of eight years before, 
who laughed heartily at finding him again in their 
hands. The Indians shook his hand, patted him 
on the shoulder, called him "brother," for so famous 
was he on the border that the savages would rather 
have captured him than George Washington him- 
self. In the meantime, Boone's keen brain, behind 
his careless exterior, had been swiftly noting de- 
tails. He saw that this was a war party by its paint 
and equipment, that it was a serious war party by its 
numbers, and that it was an important war party 



186 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

by its discipline, its leadership, the presence with 
it of two Frenchmen, and the fact that contrary to 
all custom it had taken the warpath in the dead of 
winter. There could be no doubt that the expe- 
dition had a definite object; and that object could 
be no other than the capture of Boonesborough. 
Also there could be no doubt that the Indians must 
have been made aware that so many of the garrison 
were away. Indeed, the fact that they apparently 
had intended to pass by the salt-makers without 
attempting to gather their tempting scalps proved 
plainly enough the singlemindedness of their pur- 
pose and the danger of Boonesborough. 

All these things Boone saw clearly as he leaned on 
his long rifle and smiled in the faces of his enemies: 
and in that few moments he made up his mind to a 
course of action. He knew not only the fort's 
weakness in numbers, but that one side of its stock- 
ade was even then in the course of reconstruction. 
The presence of the women and children at the fort 
made the merest chance of its capture unthinkable. 

Boone greeted the chief of the Indians, our ac- 
quaintance Blackfish, with cordiality. His manner 
under the fierce scrutiny of the crowding warriors 
showed no trace of fear nor even of uneasiness; nor 
did he appear to the closest inspection as other than 
a visitor among them. By some means he man- 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 187 

aged to convey the idea, and to get it believed that 
he was on the whole rather glad to be captured, that 
he was wearied of fighting and would not be averse 
to a life of peace with his old enemies. As it was 
well known through all the tribes that Boone had 
always fought fairly and justly and without hatred, 
as his reputation for equitable dealing and wisdom 
was as well established as his renown as a fighter, 
in some way he managed to gain complete credence. 
He then went on to persuade them that it might not 
be impossible to arrange that all his people at 
Boonesborough would rather live farther north, 
among friendly Indians, than here on the dark and 
bloody ground, exposed to constant danger and 
alarm. He proposed that they test him by allowing 
him to persuade the salt-makers to surrender peace- 
ably. Then he suggested that in the spring, when 
the weather was warmer, they should all return to 
Boonesborough properly equipped with horses to 
carry the women and children. Thus the whole 
settlement would be content to move north, to live 
thenceforth as the adopted children of the Shawnees. 
This he made sound entirely reasonable. His ex- 
traordinary influence over the Indians always has 
excited much wonder; but it was simply that he 
possessed all the qualities they particularly ad- 
mired, and was in addition calm, just, and merciful. 



188 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

After a long conference he succeeded in influencing 
Blackfish to turn aside for the purpose of gathering 
in the salt-makers. In return for a promise of good 
treatment for them all Boone guaranteed they 
would surrender peaceably. When within a short 
distance of the camp Boone was permitted by the 
Indians to advance alone — which in itself shows 
confidence in his word — to talk with his comrades. 
The latter agreed to follow his advice implicitly — 
another evidence of confidence, this time on the part 
of the white man — and so laid down their arms and 
surrendered. 

There was diflficulty now. Many of the Shawnee 
warriors claimed that in this negotiation they had 
not been consulted: they had come far on the war, 
path, and they were loth to turn back now without 
scalps. A council was called, which lasted two hours. 
Blackfish struggled vehemently in debate. Boone 
was asked again to state his plan, which he did 
through the interpretation of a negro named Pompey, 
who was now a member of the tribe. At last it 
came to a vote. The question never involved the 
killing of Boone himself, but was as to whether or not 
the salt-makers should be killed. The war club was 
passed from one warrior to another. If he struck 
the ground with it he voted for death; if he passed 
it silently to his neighbour he voted for clemency. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 189 

Fifty-nine struck the earth; sixty-one passed the 
war club ! 

But though the vote was so close, the decision was 
accepted as final; and thereafter the captives were 
scrupulously well treated. 

They journeyed back at once to the Indian town 
of Old Chillicothe, and even Boone says it was an 
uncomfortable journey, for the weather was still 
very cold. They arrived on the eleventh day. As 
usual, when returning with captives, the war party 
stopped outside the town to dress and paint, and to 
strip a pole on the end of which was hung a "con- 
juring bag" containing locks of hair from each of 
the prisoners. Then Blackfish gave three yells, 
and the band began to sing and to dance around 
the stripped pole. At once the squaws and boys 
rushed out to the scene of celebration, while the 
warriors who had remained at home from the expe- 
dition retired in dignity to the council house. The 
squaws carried in the baggage, leaving the arriving 
warriors, in their gala paint, free to make a grand 
entrance, and to dance around the town's war post. 
This they did for about twenty minutes, after which 
they entered the council house with their prisoners. 

This and more elaborate ceremonies took place 
always. Blackfish was exceedingly proud of the 
numbers and quality of his prisoners. 



190 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

After Chillicothe had admired to its heart's con- 
tent he began to desire further praise. A grand tour 
was devised, ending at Detroit, then the British 
headquarters. They took Boone and ten other 
white men and started out as a sort of travelHng 
circus with exhibits. Everywhere they received 
good treatment, and at the end of twenty days 
arrived in Detroit. 

All this time Boone with his infinite patience and 
infinite sagacity never ceased for one moment to 
impress himself in the good graces of the savages. 
In this he succeeded better than he expected, rather 
too well, as it turned out. Boone was everything a 
savage admired. He was quiet and silent, and it 
must be confessed that the average borderer was 
apt to be noisy and brawling. He was brave; and 
yet he used the sense of prudence. He was es- 
pecially endowed with that considered and de- 
liberate wisdom so desired by the red man. But 
especially he was "always willing to deal with the 
Indians as having manhood and humanity about 
them, instead of waging a war of extirpation, as 
against wild beasts." In fact, so closely did Boone 
approximate the Indian ideals of virtue, and in so 
genuinely friendly a man-to-man fashion did he 
always deal with them, that it was said of him that 
"the Indians could not imagine how Boone could 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 191 

be a perpetual foe to them." Without doubt they 
beheved at this moment — under his careful teaching 
them so to believe — that as he was so nearly an In- 
dian in virtue he could not fail to wish to be an In- 
dian in fact! 

They stayed at Detroit for about a month, camp- 
ing, as was usual with the Indians, outside the 
works. At this time Hamilton was commandant, 
and under him were many officers, and with them 
white women of rank. In its small way this was a 
brilliant society. To the Shawnee chieftain it was 
a prideful matter to have this celebrated prisoner 
to show off as his property. And the prisoner was 
indeed celebrated. The English crowded to view 
him as a curiosity; but seem to have capitulated to 
the simplicity and directness and charm of his 
character, for almost immediately we see the rough 
frontiersman being sought and entertained by the 
most exclusive of these English gentlemen and 
ladies, people usually profoundly contemptuous of 
"the uncouth and illiterate backwoodsmen." In- 
deed shortly we see them further giving a more sub- 
stantial guarantee of their interest. Governor Ham- 
ilton himself tried to ransom Boone from his Indian 
captors, and gradually raised his price to one hun- 
dred pounds sterling, which was an enormous sum 
for such a purpose in those days and at the value 



192 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

money then bore. But Blackfish steadily refused. 
As we have hinted, Boone had only too well suc- 
ceeded with his captors. He had not only gained 
their confidence but their affection. Blackfish flatly 
refused to ransom him at any price. As the British 
alliance with the Indians was hanging in the balance, 
Hamilton did not dare press the matter. The other 
white men were freely left as prisoners of war with 
the British, a fate infinitely preferable to what 
would have happened to them if Boone had not 
made terms for them. But Boone himself they 
intended to keep. This attempt at ransom having 
proved a failure, the English officers made up a sum 
of money which they offered the Scout as a gift for 
his immediate necessities. Boone declined this 
kindly offer with gratitude, but with dignity, saying 
simply that he "looked forward through the prob- 
abilities of his life, and saw no prospect of his being 
able to repay." 

The savages, with Boone, returned over the hard 
and difficult journey to Old Chillicothe. Then they 
settled down, and Boone was adopted into the tribe. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE ceremony of adoption was very formal, 
and somewhat painful. Blackfish himself 
purposed taking the scout into his own 
family where, as Boone himself says, *'I became a 
son, and had a great share in the affection of my new 
parents, brothers, sisters, and friends." 

First of all, an old Indian squatted down in front 
of him and began slowly and ceremoniously to pull 
out all his hair, with the exception of the scalp lock 
on the crown; "as if he had been plucking a turkey," 
James Smith describes the process. "He had," 
Smith adds, "some ashes on a piece of bark, in 
which he frequently dipped his jSngers in order to get 
a firmer hold." The scalp lock was then divided 
into three parts, two of which were wrapped about 
with narrow beaded bands, and the third was 
braided and ornamented with silver brooches. 
Next Boone was instructed to remove his clothes 
and put on a breech clout. His face and body were 
painted in ceremonial colours and patterns, and he 
wOiS ornamented with a neck belt of wampum, and 
silver bracelets and armlets. All this took place 

193 



194 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

within the house. The chief then took him by the 
hand and led him into the street and uttered rapidly 
several times the alarm yell. Immediately the whole 
village came running. Still holding Boone by the 
hand Blackfish made a long speech, after which the 
new member was taken by the women of his Indian 
family to the river where he was scrubbed thoroughly 
from head to foot. This was supposed to wash out 
the white blood. He was given a white staff orna- 
mented with deers' tails and returned to the lodge of 
his captor, Blackfish. In the case of the usual cap- 
tive the family then had a choice of whether he 
should be killed or adopted; but as this had already 
been decided, Boone was taken to the great council 
house. This was a long structure without partitions, 
with a door at each end over which was drawn the 
totem animal of the tribe, and on the doorposts of 
which were carved the faces of old men, emblems of 
gravity and wisdom. Running the length of the 
walls were raised benches or bunks covered with mats 
of rushes. Here other members of the tribe had 
already brought presents of clothes. Besides the 
useful hunters' garments and blankets were other 
things, such as — it is James Smith again who tells 
us — " a new ruffled shirt, which I put on, also a pair 
of leggings done off with ribbons and beads, likewise 
a pair of moccasins and garters dressed with beads. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 195 

porcupine quills, and red hair — also a tinsel lace 
cappo." Now Boone's face and body were again 
painted, in new colours and designs, and a bunch of 
straight red feathers tied to his scalp lock. He was 
presented with a pipe, a tomahawk, flint and steel, 
and a tobacco pouch, and made to seat himself on a 
bearskin. Next entered into the council house all 
the warriors of the tribe, in ceremonial paint, and 
wearing all the finery they owned. These seated 
themselves in a circle along the walls of the council 
house, and for a time there was a profound silence 
while the smoke curled upward from the calumets. 
Then at length Blackfish arose and made a speech. 

"My son," said he, "you are now flesh of our 
flesh and bone of our bone. By the ceremony which 
was performed this day every drop of white blood 
was washed out of your veins; you were taken into 
the Shawnee nation and initiated into a warlike 
tribe; you are adopted into a great family, and now 
received in the place of a great man." [Smith's re- 
port again. The new member was supposed to fill 
in the family the place of an Indian who had been 
killed.] 

"You are now one of us by an old strong law and 
custom. My son, you have nothing to fear; we are 
now under the same obligations to love, support, and 
defend you that we are to love and defend one an- 



196 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

other. Therefore you are to consider yourself one 
of our people." 

Personal introductions then took place, as at a 
reception. The evening was spent in feasting. 
Boone was given a bowl and a wooden spoon. The 
feast was of venison and corn boiled together in 
brass kettles, maple sugar, bears' fat, and hominy. 
Thenceforward no distinction was made between him 
and the other members of the tribe. "If they had 
plenty of clothing, I had plenty; if we were scarce, 
we all shared one fate." 

Boone was named Sheltowee, or Big Turtle, and 
taken into the lodge of Blackfish. The chances of 
escape were practically nothing; so Boone, with his 
usual sagacity, so heartily entered into the life of 
the tribe and its occupations that he soon gained 
their entire confidence. In his own words: "I was 
exceedingly friendly and familiar with them, always 
appearing as cheerful and satisfied as possible, and 
they put great confidence in me. The Shawnee 
king took great notice of me, and treated me with 
profound respect and entire friendship, often en- 
trusting me to hunt at my liberty." In this the 
Indians took only one precaution: they counted the 
bullets issued to Boone, and required of him a very 
exact accounting when he returned. Boone dis- 
covered that a half bullet with a light powder charge 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 197 

was accurate enough, if implanted in just the right 
spot, to bring down game at close range; so he cut 
his bullets in two, took especial pains in his stalking, 
and thus managed to accumulate a store of ammuni- 
tion under the Shawnees' very noses. 

He went often on beaver-hunting expeditions, for 
the severe winter was very favourable for capturing 
these animals by other than the usual trapping 
methods. The beavers, as you know, live in conical- 
shaped "houses," the entrances to which are under 
water. They have passages in the river banks 
called washes. The procedure was to break in the 
roofs of the houses, whereupon the beavers betook 
themselves to the washes whence they were pulled 
out by hand. It took considerable address to seize 
them without being bitten! The hunters also 
looked for holes where the bears were hibernating. 
They preferred to find the male bears, and could 
distinguish because the holes occupied by the males 
were always next the ground, while the females 
picked out their winter quarters high up for the 
safety of the cubs which were born near springtime. 

In the village itself he took part in the various 
dances — the calumet dance, the chief's dance, the 
dead dance, the marriage dance, the sacrifice dance. 
He observed the marriage customs : where the suitor 
brings his gifts to the bride's parents, leaving them 



198 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

for consideration. If the bride's relatives, all as- 
sembled in council, confirm the match, they return 
the visit, bringing presents and also the girl herself; 
but if they disapprove, or the young lady is not 
willing, they return the suitor's own gifts by an- 
other messenger. He also entered into the various 
games; and here he proved his diplomacy and his 
knowledge of Indian character. "I was careful not 
to exceed many of them in shooting; for no people 
are more envious than they in this sport. I could 
observe in their countenances and gestures the 
greatest expressions of joy when they exceeded me; 
and, when the reverse happened, of envy." He also 
allowed himself to be distanced in the races and 
beaten in the ball games; not always, but more often 
than not, so that the vanity of the savages was 
gratified. In hunting, however, he allowed full 
scope to his skill and genius; which were so remark- 
able, even among these experts, that shortly he was 
being used as a sort of official meat provider. He 
made several quite long expeditions; and, as always, 
kept his eyes open and made observations that 
might prove useful to future settlers. *'I find," 
he says, "the land, for a great extent about this 
river, to exceed the soil of Kentucky, if possible, 
and remarkably well watered." 

Always Boone entered heartily and with genuine 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 199 

interest in the life as it was lived by the Indians. 
He took part in the games of lacrosse. Some of 
these, the less serious, were contested between the 
men and the women. In concession to their weaker 
sex the women had the privilege of picking up the 
ball and running with it; which was not permitted 
the men. On the other hand, the men were allowed 
to catch and shake the squaws to make them drop 
the ball! Boone also played atergain, which is a 
game played with beans, a number of which are 
placed in a bowl. One of these beans is marked, 
and is called the chief. The player shakes the bowl 
and tries to make the chief hop out, but with a loss 
of as few of the other beans as possible. When he 
has caused the chief to leap out, he gains as many 
points as there are beans left in the bowl. It takes 
considerable skill, and is a lot of fun. Try it. 
Another game was to shoot arrows at a rolling hoop. 
This was done both horseback and afoot; and the 
object was not to shoot through the centre of the 
hoop, but to split the rim. An expert at bow and 
arrow could hit a ha'penny at fifteen yards, we are 
told. 

In the spring the Indians, recollecting the occu- 
pation of the whites when captured, took Boone to 
a salt spring on the Scioto and set him to boiling out 
salt. It was hard and monotonous work, not at 



200 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

all to the taste of an Indian warrior; but Boone, with 
his usual equable philosophy, worked patiently and 
efficiently at it. He was only lightly guarded, but 
he was guarded; and after due consideration of all 
the chances he decided against an attempt to es- 
cape, and returned to Chillicothe. He had now 
been in the Indian town over four months, in all of 
which time no faintest indication had been observed 
that he was not entirely satisfied with his lot. 

To his alarm, during his fortnight's absence, 
preparations had been well forwarded for another 
expedition against Boonesborough. Nearly five hun- 
dred warriors had gathered; and the ceremonials 
that preceded a serious warpath were well under 
way. In the great council house the elders were 
gathered daily making their plans; delivering 
speeches. With each speech the orator presented 
belts of wampum, one belt for each point he wished 
to have remembered, generally of white and black; 
the white made from pieces of the inside of conch 
shells, the black from mussel shells. Outside the 
council house the younger men danced around the 
war post and struck their tomahawks into it, while 
the women, crooning, patted the drums in rhythm. 
For three days they would fast, drinking only the 
war drink of bitter herbs and roots. During that 
time no warrior could sit down, or even lean against 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 201 

anything, until after sunset. The simple provisions 
for the journey were already prepared — corn and 
maple sugar. These would be in the control of 
men called etissus, who would parcel them out 
rigorously. No one would touch a mouthful of 
anything, either of the supplies carried nor of the 
provisions procured on the way, except by per- 
mission of the etissus. The waterproof gun covers 
of loons' skins were in place. The war budget was 
made up: a bag containing some one article from 
each man, the skin of a snake, the tail of a buffalo, a 
martin skin, a bird skin, or what not. On the march 
this budget would always be carried at the very head 
of the file by a designated oflScial. When the party 
halted, the budget was laid on the ground, and no 
one was permitted to pass ahead of it without author- 
ity. This was as a measure of discipline. There 
were other prohibitions, too, all of them practical; 
such as that no one was allowed to lay his pack on a 
log, nor converse about women or home. And there 
were other rigid ceremonies on the warpath: as, for 
example, when a beast was killed for food its heart 
was cut small and burned on an especial fire, and 
nobody must step across this fire nor go around it 
except in the direction of the sun. Then when the 
time came for attack, the budget was opened and 
its contents distributed to their owners, who at- 



202 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

tached the articles to the part of the body estab- 
Hshed by tradition for each. After the battle the 
budget was reassembled, and the man who took the 
first scalp now had the privilege of carrying it. 
After the return he could suspend it before his door 
for one month ; a great honour. 

Promptly at the end of the three days of fasting 
Boone knew that the war party would set forth no 
matter what the weather. It was a bad omen 
otherwise. In single file, at spaced intervals, the 
painted warriors would move from the town, firing 
their rifles slowly one after the other, beginning at 
the front and progressing shot by shot to the rear. 
Once out of hearing of the town, however, a rigid 
silence was imposed. Now the expedition was 
launched for success or failure. Nothing could 
interfere with it unless someone dreamed an un- 
propitious dream; or unless a certain species of bird 
came and sang near an encampment. This bird the 
Indians called the Kind Messenger because it thus 
brought them warning that the expedition was not 
lucky. In either of the cases mentioned they always 
turned back unquestioningly. 

Boone knew that his time was short and that if he 
were to act, it must be at once. No longer could he 
afford to wait for what he might consider a propi- 
tious moment. He took part in the councils and the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 203 

war dance; as to the conduct of the campaign he 
even made one or two practical suggestions that were 
approved. Not by a word or look did he indicate 
that he was anything but pleased at the turn affairs 
had taken. The Indians were completely deceived. 
On the morning of June fifteenth they doled out 
what they considered the day's supply of ammuni- 
tion and sent him out to kill deer for the war party. 
Boone pouched also the powder and half bullets he 
had been so long accumulating, and struck out boldly 
across country for home. 



CHAPTER XV 

THERE could hardly have been a more un- 
propitious time for an attempt at escape. 
Five hundred warriors, trained to the minute, 
were gathered; provisions were prepared. Instantly 
on the discovery of his flight Boone knew the whole 
pack would be on his trail. They knew the country 
thoroughly, with all its routes and also all its diffi- 
culties and obstructions. The course he must take 
would lead through forests, swamps, and across many 
rivers. If captured he could expect nothing but the 
torture, for the Indians could not fail to see in this 
attempt a deadly insult; and he now possessed many 
of their secrets and plans. His only advantage was 
his certainty of a few hours' start. 

It was subsequently learned that his absence was 
discovered more quickly than he had hoped. The 
entire town was thrown into a commotion of rage. 
Immediately the fleetest runners and the keenest 
hunters were thrown out broadcast through the 
forest, while others began to puzzle out his trail; 
and still others loped off on what was considered his 
probable route. They guessed well. Boone found 

204 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 205 

himself sorely pressed. He had to use his every 
art of woodcraft. He doubled and twisted and ran, 
travelling day and night, almost without rest, until 
the Ohio River should be reached. He dared not 
fire his gun, so his stored ammunition was of no use 
to him. He dared kindle no fire. He dared spend 
no time searching for even the poor food the barks 
and roots of the forest afforded him. Time and 
again his keen-eyed foes were literally all about him, 
but time and again he slipped through them. At 
length he pushed the bushes cautiously aside and 
looked out across the reaches of the Ohio River. 
It was swollen by the rains, and its current swept 
by at mill-race speed. Even the strongest swimmer 
might well have despaired at this sight, and Boone 
was not a good swimmer. He had no time to cut a 
log and trust to the slow and uncertain process of 
kicking himself across, for the Indians were by now 
fairly on his heels. He descended to the shore, 
and there he found an old canoe that after going 
adrift at some unknown point far upstream had 
grounded here at his very feet to answer his great 
need! And out of all the hundreds of miles of the 
river course he had picked out this one point at 
which to emerge! Do you wonder that his simple 
faith was strong that he was "ordained by God to 
conquer the wilderness".^ 



206 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

The canoe had a hole in it, but Boone managed to 
make quick repairs of a sort good enough to get him 
across, though with some difficulty. Once on the 
other side he felt safe enough to shoot and cook a 
wild turkey, which is recorded as being the only food 
he tasted in his flight. One meal in five days: one 
hundred and sixty miles in five days. 

He arrived at Boonesborough emaciated, gaunt, 
almost exhausted. His reception was enthusiastic, 
but he had to meet a great disappointment, for he 
had long since been given up as lost, and Rebecca 
Boone had gathered the remnants of her family and 
returned to Carolina. Boone speaks of his dis- 
appointment, and incidentally shows the great 
affection that existed between them. "Oppressed," 
said he, "with the distress of the country and be- 
reaved of me, her only happiness, she had undertaken 
her long and perilous journey through the wilder- 
ness." 

It would have been natural, after recuperating, for 
him to have followed her, and most men would have 
done so; but Boone, as usual, put his duty first. 
As he had feared, he found the fort in a bad state of 
repair. At once he set the inhabitants vigorously 
to work, and within ten days the stockades were re- 
newed, new bastions had been built, the stores of 
provisions and water replenished, and all was pre- 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 207 

pared to resist a siege. The attack, however, de- 
layed. Boone's escape had thrown the Indian coun- 
cils into confusion. His arrival at the fort had of 
course been known and immediately reported back; 
as also his vigorous efforts toward putting the place 
in condition for defense. The chance for a surprise 
was gone; as also the advantage of moving against 
decaying works. A Grand Council of all the nation 
had been- held. The elders restrained the im- 
patience of the youths, pointing out that as the 
possibility of surprise had been lost, it would be 
well to make preparations so complete and accurate 
that success would be certain. More warriors were 
summoned; more ammunition collected. This ex- 
pedition against Boonesborough was conceived and 
executed on a scale, and especially with a dogged 
persistence, that had never been equalled in Indian 
warfare. The siege that we shall soon see to follow 
lasted nine days; the longest single attack on record; 
and after its close the garrison picked up "a hundred 
and twenty-five pounds of flattened bullets that had 
been fired at the log stronghold — this salvage made 
no account of the balls thickly studding the walls." 
However, that was later. Having finished put- 
ting the works into a state of defense, Boone, with his 
characteristic boldness, resolved to give the enemy 
something to think about. So he selected nineteen 



208 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

of the best woodsmen and with them set out on his 
back track into the heart of the enemies' country! 
His idea was not so much that he could inflict sub- 
stantial damage as to impress the Indians, and to 
find out for himself what was really going on. Their 
only provisions were dried corn and maple sugar, 
like the Indians'. This daring foray actually crossed 
the Ohio River and penetrated to the Scioto River, 
where Boone had been employed in making salt. 
They managed for some time to avoid the savages, 
but at length ran across a party of thirty on its way 
to join the main army at Chillicothe. What Boone 
calls a "smart fight" ensued in the forest. Boone's 
nineteen proved too much for the thirty. 

Now that his presence in the country had been 
discovered, he knew the place would soon be too 
hot for him. The twenty white men executed a 
masterly retreat, avoiding the scouts and light 
parties sent out to intercept them; and returned in 
triumph and safety to the fort. Simon Kenton and 
another man stayed behind to steal some horses, 
which was characteristic of that bold and restless 
spirit. In consequence he was not in the fort during 
the great battle, and that caused him profound grief ! 



CHAPTER XVI 

ONE thing Boone's expedition had clearly 
shown: the calm interval did not mean that 
the Indians had abandoned their project. 
The warriors were gathered at the Shawnee town, 
and shortly they set forth under the command of 
Blackfish. There were four hundred and forty -four 
of them, and with them twelve whites as military 
advisers. The chief of these was a French Canadian, 
a lieutenant named De Quindre. A number of 
very important and famous chiefs were with the 
expedition: such as Black Bird, whom Patrick 
Henry called *'the great Chippewa"; Moluntha, 
who had led the Shawnees in all the really serious 
invasions of Kentucky; and Catahecassa, who had 
led in Braddock's defeat. Pompey, the negro, was 
also along, valuable mainly because he spoke Eng- 
lish, not otherwise highly considered, but a member 
of the tribe for all that. The equipment was that 
usual to an expedition of this kind, simple, confined 
to the rifle and the corn wallet for the warriors. 
But, contrary to the usual custom, almost incredibly 
contrary, was the presence of a number of pack- 

209 



210 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

horses. They carried extra ammunition; but that 
was only in order that they might carry something. 
Their intended use was quite different. You remem- 
ber that when Boone surrendered at the Salt Licks 
he gained immunity for his men by suggesting that 
in the warmer season it might be possible to move 
all the inhabitants peaceably to the Shawnee coun- 
try there to live in adoption, and that he suggested, 
further, that packhorses be brought for the purpose 
of transporting the children and the household 
goods .'^ Well, in spite of Boone's escape the savages 
seem to have retained some lingering hope that 
the original plan would be followed. They hated 
to give Boone up. They Hked him, and they ad- 
mired him. Even though appearances were now 
so strongly against him, they were loth to aban- 
don entirely all thought of keeping him as one of 
their tribe. 

This not only accounts for the otherwise unex- 
plained packhorses, but also for the most extraor- 
dinary delays and negotiations that preceded the 
attack. Boone, as will be seen, made the most 
skilful use of these negotiations, prolonging the de- 
lays as much as possible. He had promptly, on his 
arrival, sent messengers to the settlements for re- 
enforcements, and every moment gained was an 
added chance for the safety of the garrison. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 211 

Early in the morning of September 7th the Indian 
forces crossed the river and quietly took up their 
positions in the surrounding woods within rifle shot 
of the fort. Their advance had been reported by 
the scouts, so the garrison was prepared and within 
doors. To oppose the savage horde were thirty 
men : these, with the women and boys, were to make 
the place secure. 

There was no attempt at concealment, and no 
hostile demonstration. The Indian elders had more 
than a strong hope that the place could be captured 
without a fight. They were very fond of Boone i 
and in spite of his desertion they knew that in- 
dividually he was very fond of them, and that his 
enmity was only the enmity of loyalty to his own 
side. They had carried out honourably their agree- 
ments made when the salt-makers had surrendered to 
them the year before, and they believed that on that 
account the garrison would be inclined to trust any 
terms they might make now. 

The forest lay as though empty, still and hazy in 
the autumn mists; the fort stood as though deserted, 
save for the rising of smoke from the rude chimneys 
of the cabins. Nevertheless, hundreds of fierce 
black eyes from the shelter of the leafy underbrush 
were scrutinizing every detail of the log fortress and 
the half -cleared ground that lay around it; and within 



212 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the defenses eyes were at the portholes, and ears 
were strained to catch the least movement. 

Suddenly the bushes parted and a solitary Indian, 
unarmed, and carrying a bit of white on a stick, ad- 
vanced with composure to a point "within easy 
calling distance" of the fort, mounted a stump, and 
uttered the usual call of the woodsman, a prolonged 
hall-o-o-o! For a time there was no reply, and no 
signs of life in the fort. Boone knew too well the 
peculiarities of the Indian point of view to confess 
weakness by any undue eagerness, haste, or excite- 
ment. After a suflScient pause had elapsed he sent 
back an answering hail. 

The emissary could speak English. He an- 
nounced merely that the chiefs desired a parley to 
consider messages brought from Governor Hamilton 
at Detroit. This was a most unusual opening for 
an Indian attack — customarily the first intimation 
was the war whoop and the rattle of rifles — but 
Boone was delighted. Negotiation meant delay; 
and delay meant a better chance for the arrival of 
the re enforcements from Holston. Consider for 
yourself the problem of defense that confronted him. 
The total length of the walls was nearly nine hundred 
feet, besides which there were the four corner block- 
houses to be manned. Boone had at his command 
thirty riflemen, with an addition of about twenty 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 213 

boys. Spread out, that meant only one man to 
every thirty feet to be defended. The enemy out- 
numbered him more than ten to one, and was in force 
enough to dehver a formidable attack on all four 
sides at once, if they so desired; or to keep up a 
continuous battle by relays, night and day. Most 
men would have considered the job hopeless, and 
would have anticipated being overrun at the first 
assault. So you can readily understand that the 
leaders snatched at every chance for delay. 

After a suitable and dignified silence Boone agreed 
finally to send three to meet three. All must be 
unarmed, and the meeting must take place beneath 
the guns of the fort. Immediately thereafter ap- 
peared Blackfish, the military leader; Moluntha, 
the "Shawanese King" so often mentioned by Boone 
during his captivity; and the Frenchman, De 
Quindre. To meet them went Boone, Callaway, 
and W. B. Smith. They carried with them only a 
calumet, or ceremonial tobacco pipe, and a piece of 
white cloth on a ramrod. 

It is recorded that Boone found the meeting with 
Blackfish and Moluntha "embarrassing enough." 
Blackfish had made him a member of his family, 
and Moluntha had treated him with distinguished 
kindness: to which must be added that a real affec- 
tion existed between them all. But the white man 



214 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

felt that he must be loyal to his own, and the Indians, 
in spite of their chagrin, respected him for it and ad- 
mired the wiliness of his stratagem; for that was an 
Indian virtue. One source of heart-burning was 
speedily eliminated, however. Moluntha sorrow- 
fully reproached Boone for killing his son "the other 
day over the Ohio"; but Boone energetically denied 
any knowledge of the act. The letter from Hamil- 
ton was then passed over and read. It contained 
terms for the surrender of the fort, and offered such 
favourable proposals that evidently the Indians 
thought they could not be refused, for when Boone 
had finished the perusal of the letter, old Blackfish 
patted him on the shoulder in a neighbourly fashion, 
saying: 

"I have come to take the people away easily. I 
have brought along forty horses for the old folks, 
the women, and the children to ride." 

"That is thoughtful of my father," replied Boone, 
apparently pleased. "But the road is long. It is 
a serious thing for all of a people to leave their 
homes. These things must be told them, and pipes 
must be smoked in council. Let not your young 
men or ours look upon the tomahawk nor the rifle. 
At the end of two days we will make reply." 

To this proposal the three enemy emissaries gave 
assent, to Boone's great though secret satisfaction. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 215 

Such delay had been beyond his most ardent hopes, 
and it was due solely to the esteem the Indians had 
conceived for the great Scout, and the hope that in 
some way he might be gained to their cause. After 
a peaceful and friendly stroll and conversation be- 
fore the silent fort, the parties separated. 

Inside the compound the entire garrison gathered 
about the returned emissaries. Boone briefly out- 
lined Hamilton's proposals. He pointed out the 
odds against them, and the diflficulties so few would 
encounter in trying to defend so large a place. He 
gave it as his opinion that the Indians meant to 
fulfil the terms they offered, and that the prob- 
abilities were strong that the garrison would arrive 
safely in the Indian country. Re enforcements had 
been sent for, but the time of their arrival was un- 
certain; if, indeed, they arrived at all. Those were 
the facts. 

Somebody asked for his opinion. 

That was a different matter. The country was at 
war. The British were our enemies. Boonesbor- 
ough was a fortress of the new republic. To accept 
Hamilton's proposals would not be to surrender as 
prisoners of war; it would be to desert to the enemy! 
For his part he felt it his duty to fight honourably for 
his own side to the death. There were elements of 
hope in the situation. The Holston men might 



216 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

come. Did they hear Blackfish's statement of forty 
horses for the old folks and children? That number 
meant that they thought Boonesborough more 
populous than was the fact. The weakness of the 
defenders was unknown to them. If they realized 
that but fifty rifles at most were available for de- 
fense, undoubtedly they would carry the place out 
of hand; but the Indian habit of warfare would not 
countenance a frontal attack against what they 
thought a large body of the deadly borderers. If 
the weakness of the garrison could be concealed: 
and if all did a little better than they thought was 
their best, and if each kept up a stout heart, there 
might be a chance of winning through. 

Whereupon, as a matter of course, they voted 
unanimously to reject Hamilton's terms; and at once 
turned to on the last details of preparations for 
defense. 

Truth to tell, no one had the greatest confidence 
in the truce. At any moment hostile demonstrations 
were expected. Therefore everybody was surprised 
and delighted when small parties, sent experimentally 
to the springs, were not molested. All the water 
was at once secured that could possibly be obtained 
without arousing suspicion. The fort had its usual 
reservoirs, of course; but all the calculations of the 
time were for short attacks, lasting at most a day or 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 217 

two, and Boone rightly foresaw that this struggle, 
once joined, would be to a finish. About sundown, 
again to the vast astonishment of the settlers, the 
cows and other live stock wandered out from the 
forest as they were accustomed to do every evening. 
The savages had not molested them; and the settlers 
thankfully gathered them in. As soon as it was 
dark enough the most expert at concealment were 
sent out into the fort vegetable garden to bring in 
whatever was there either for man or beast. Within, 
everyone, even the women and small children, was 
busy cleaning and loading rifles, picking flints, 
moulding bullets, preparing defenses. There was 
intense excitement but no abatement of resolution. 
That night a sentinel stood on the lookout in every 
blockhouse; and every man slept at his station with 
rifle at hand. We have a record from one of them as 
to how literal was the well-known phrase, "to sleep 
on your arms." 

"I had my powder horn and shot pouch at my 
side," he writes, "and placed the butt of my gun 
under my head. Five of our company lay on the 
east side of the fire, and T. and myself on the west. 
We lay on our left sides and my right hand hold of 
my gun." 

But there was no alarm. The Indians honourably 
observed the truce. No more was heard or seen of 



218 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

them until the cool of evening on the second day, 
when again the bushes parted and the two chiefs 
and the Frenchman, bearing their white flag, came 
confidently forward to receive a reply that evidently 
they were certain would be favourable to their pro- 
posals. 

"The garrison," said Boone, "has determined to 
defend the fort while a man is living." He then 
went on briefly to thank them for observing the 
truce. 

The Indians, we are told, were deeply "astonished, 
disappointed, and exasperated" at this reply, so 
different from what they had confidently expected; 
but they listened with their customary gravity, and 
went back into the forest. Up to this point their 
proposals had been sincerely made. Now they 
turned to enmity; as indeed they had every reason 
to do honourably. And as what we now call treachery 
and stratagem were a legitimate and honest means 
of warfare, used without reproach by both sides 
alike, and indeed already employed by Boone, we 
can hardly join certain indignant writers in their 
horror at the next move. It was a game of wits, 
between wily and experienced players. Boone fought 
for delay, and used every means to get it ; the Indians 
wanted possession of the stronghold and the people 
in it without a fight. From one point of view the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 219 

safety of Boonesborough could be credited to an 
unknown Kentucky prisoner captured a short time 
before by the Shawnees. This man, when questioned, 
had informed his captors that the fort had "lately 
been re enforced with three companies each of 
seventy men." Against a possible two hundred and 
fifty riflemen the savages might well hesitate to 
deliver a frontal attack; whereas they would con- 
temptuously sweep over thirty. And the conduct 
of Boone seemed to confirm this report of the Ken- 
tucky prisoner. 

At the end of a short time, instead of the immediate 
assault the settlers now expected, came the three 
emissaries back with another proposal. This, un- 
like the first, was not sincerely intended, and was 
merely a means that was hoped to be effective in 
getting hold of the leading white men, and perhaps 
of the garrison itself. This time De Quindre did 
the talking through one of the other white men as 
interpreter. 

He said that his orders from Governor Hamilton 
were to avoid bloodshed at all costs; he pointed out 
in corroboration of this the observance of the truce, 
the fact that the cattle had been allowed to enter 
the stockade; that what was really wanted was to 
remove the menace of Boonesborough against the 
British in the northwest; that therefore a surrender 



£20 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

was not really necessary. What was wanted was 
peace on the border, so a treaty of peace signed by 
the leading men of Boonesborough would be suffi- 
cient; after which the savages would withdraw. He 
went on to suggest that the nine leading men of the 
garrison should meet with himself and the Indians 
to make such a treaty. 

Boone, of course, had not much faith in this pro- 
posal. It might be the policy of the British, but 
here were half a thousand warriors come a long dis- 
tance on a warpath, and it was against their nature 
to return empty handed. Still he possessed the 
confidence of Governor Hamilton; he had con- 
siderable influence and respect among the Indians; 
no one knew how far the military authority of the 
British in dictating the policy of such an expedition 
might extend. And above all here was a chance for 
further delay! The last consideration decided him. 
He agreed; but stipulated, "as it was now so late 
in the day," that the conference should not take 
place until the following morning; he also specified 
that it should be held in "the hollow at the Lick 
Spring," which could be covered by rifle fire from 
the nearest bastion. The Indians withdrew. 

At once Boone began to lay his plans. For the 
peace commissioners he selected men of long ex- 
perience with Indians, and also of strength and 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 221 

agility. Among them were some of our acquain- 
tance: Squire Boone, Richard Callaway, W. B. 
Smith, and Flanders Callaway who had married 
Jemima Boone. For the bastion he designated a 
number of the best rifle shots, whom he instructed 
to open fire promptly when any of the party waved 
a hat. Since to reach the Lick Spring the Indians 
must file by the fort, Boone ordered every human 
creature, women and children, white or black, to 
costume as a man and to make some sort of a show- 
ing at the pickets as though looking over in curiosity 
when the savages passed. "For that purpose," 
says Ranck, "every old hat and hunting shirt in 
the station was gathered up, and some new ones 
even were hastily manufactured. The next morn- 
ing when Blackfish, De Quindre, the older chiefs, 
interpreters and attendants filed down to the meet- 
ing place they did not fail to note the large numbers 
of hatted heads that bobbed up at the top of the 
stockade to see them pass, and were disgusted at 
the apparent confirmation as to the strength of the 
garrison." 

Boone and his men followed them unarmed, and 
the parties came together under the huge sycamores 
at the spring. 

Fortunately for Boone's purpose of delay Indians 
are long on ceremonial and dignity, and love much 



222 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

talk, long flowery speeches, and due deliberation. 
The white men were invited to seat themselves on 
panther skins, and tobacco and whiskey were passed 
and discussed. Then a feast was brought on. It 
is related that "the besiegers sought with suspicious 
generosity to beguile the ^rebels' with eatables and 
drinkables from the British commissary department 
at Detroit, such as most of them had not seen, 
much less tasted, in many a long month." Then 
they proceeded to the business of making a peace, 
which was a very formal and complicated affair. 
The calumet was passed, and the sacred drink 
called cassena. The Indians made speeches, em- 
phasizing the points by delivering belts of wam- 
pum, black on each edge and white in the middle. 
The design was intended to express peace, and that 
the path was fair and open. In the centre of these 
belts was the figure of a diamond, representing the 
council fire. The orator took one end of his belt 
and Boone hel.d the other, while the Indian moved his 
forefinger down the rows of beads as he made his 
points. The braves sitting about waved ceremonial 
fans of eagle- feathers. You may be sure that 
Boone and his companions prolonged this pow-wow 
as much as they were able. It was sundown before 
the last clause was agreed upon. This gave the 
garrison another night's respite, for it has never 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 223 

been the Indian custom to conclude an agreement 
the same day it was made. The white men played 
their points well, and appeared to be completely 
fooled. De Quindre was in high feather. 

The commissioners went back to the fort with the 
understanding that they were to return the next 
morning for the purpose of signing. Both parties 
were insincere; and yet each hoped the other might 
go through with it. From the settlers' point of 
view it was worth trying, anyway; and as we have 
seen, the Frenchman had high anticipations. 

Nevertheless, that night a strong body of Indians 
sneaked in and hid in the woods and bushes near the 
hollow, and the next morning when Blackfish led 
his party to the council trees, the settlers noted that 
many of the older men in his party had been re- 
placed by strong young warriors. Boone mentioned 
this fact a little sardonically; but Blackfish looked 
him in the eyes and coldly declared that the party 
had not been changed. The Indians had come in 
white paint with swansdown on their heads, as 
though for genuine peace. After some more delay 
the "treaty" was signed. Blackfish said that it 
must now be confirmed by the representatives of 
his people or it could not have effect; and he called 
upon his retinue to step forward to shake the white 
men's hands. Now, strangely enough, it happened 



224 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

that there were eighteen men in Blackfish's retinue, 
just two to each white man, and at this they stepped 
forward, smihng affably, and seized the pioneers' 
hands. One, a httle too eager, grasped too tightly 
and too soon, and betrayed the purpose by a move- 
ment toward the brush. Here showed Boone's 
judgment in his selection of his men. Old at Indian 
wiles, suspicious and alert, quick and strong, expert 
at wrestlers' tricks, they tripped their would-be 
captors, butted them, kicked them, wrenched them- 
selves free and sprang aside. A hat waved and 
instantly from the bastion came the answering crack 
of rifles. 

Boone and his comrades made their way to the 
fort under a storm of bullets, dodging from stump 
to stump, from hollow to hollow, from one hummock 
to another. So hot was the fire that one man had 
to lie out behind cover until the fall of night gave 
him a chance to leave his shelter. But if he was 
under the constant menace of the enemy, he was 
also under the protecting fire of his friends, and he 
escaped unscathed. Squire Boone was the only 
unlucky one. He received a bullet in the left 
shoulder. 

But once the gates had clanged shut, the firing 
died. The anxious listeners within the fort could 
hear from within the forest the sounds of a great 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 225 

bustling to and fro: they heard horses being gathered 
in and loud commands that indicated the loading 
and packing of the ponies. Evidently the Shawnees 
were disgusted with the outcome of the negotiations 
and were getting ready to leave. The next morning 
just before daybreak the enemy noisily withdrew. 
The splashing of the horses could be heard as they 
crossed the river; commands could again be clearly 
distinguished; and fainter and fainter sounded the 
calls of De Quindre's bugle in the hills. Some of 
the younger men within the fort believed the trouble 
over, and wanted to open the gates and take the 
cattle forth, but Boone only laughed. 

"Gone?" he answered them, "all but a few that 
took the horses across are hidden right now within 
a hundred yards. And most of those with the 
horses are back by now." 

"Why are you so sure?" demanded one of the 
defenders, struck by the Scout's certainty. 

"Too much noise," said Boone; "an Indian does 
not make noise. Did you hear the commands? 
They were too loudly given — so we could hear." 

So as a consequence the fort remained closed and 
the only signs of life were, as before, the slow curling 
of smoke from the chimneys. The calm lasted 
barely an hour. Then from every stump and bush 
and tree came a stream of bullets from the im- 



226 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

patient and chagrined savages, who were, as Boone 
had stated, concealed everywhere within easy 
range. The siege was on in earnest. Never before 
had ammunition been used as lavishly. The British 
had issued it in practically unlimited quantities to 
their new savage allies; the forty packhorses fur- 
nished plenty of transportation. No longer did the 
invading party have to husband its powder and lead, 
dependent on what it could itself carry. A fierce 
and withering fire was every moment directed against 
every loophole, every crack, that might even once in 
a thousand times let a bullet through. The deep 
gorge of the Kentucky River threw back the echoes 
in an almost continual roll of thunder. The settlers 
had the greatest difficulty in replying to this con- 
tinuous leaden hail, for even a momentary ap- 
pearance at a porthole was attended by great danger. 
Nevertheless, they managed so successfully as to 
hold the savages within the fringe of woods. No 
shot was wasted by these cool and practised men 
in miscellaneous firing. They had to see a mark 
before they pulled trigger. 

But that very first day a sharp-eyed youth came 
to Boone with the information that a muddy streak 
had just begun to float down the river current; 
and as there had never been a muddy streak there 
before, he thought it worth reporting. After some 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 227 

exposure and a great deal of risk Boone caught sight 
over the cHff of a pole moving as though to loosen 
dirt. 

"Some of the Frenchman's ideas," was his con- 
clusion. "No Indian would have thought of that. 
They are starting a tunnel toward us and throwing 
the dirt into the river. They intend to mine us." 

It was necessary to determine this certainly, as 
soon as possible. Under Boone's direction a rough 
but thick and bullet-proof breastwork or watch 
tower was pushed up, log by log, atop the block- 
house nearest the suspected work. From it the 
watchers could see the fresh earth as it was cast 
into the stream. The watch tower was strengthened, 
and from that time on, day and night it was occu- 
pied by one or two riflemen who watched with 
ready weapons for a chance at this new danger. 

There was only one thing to do. Just inside the 
walls, opposite the projected mine, a detail was set 
to work to dig a deep trench which should cut off 
the underground passage. It passed through sev- 
eral of the cabins that helped form the wall of the 
fort, and was about three feet wide and of great 
depth. It represented incredible labour on the part 
of men already wearied by their turn at the walls. 

There was not a moment's respite, day or night. 
Blackfish divided his men into two parties who 



228 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

stood watch and watch, so that the battle was con- 
tinuous. Within the fort there were no men to 
spare, so twenty-four hours each day the gaunt and 
haggard men clung to the portholes, snatching 
sleep a few minutes at a time. Luckily within a 
day or so a spell of foggy, drizzly weather set in. 
As the summer sun had beat fiercely down, this 
was very grateful. And especially was it provi- 
dential in that it postponed for a little the Indians' 
plans for burning out the garrison. 

Everybody within the fort expected that this 
siege would be like every other Indian siege so far 
known: that it would last two or three days at the 
very most, and then that the fickle savages, dis- 
couraged, would withdraw. But day succeeded 
day, and the intensity of the attack did not flag. 
The water in the reservoirs began to run low; and 
especially were the cattle in danger of drought. 
The strain of sleeplessness,'^ excitement, and the 
constant alertness began to tell. Every night 
through the trunks of the forest trees could be seen 
the gleams of the campfires, and the forms of the 
savages off duty taking their rest and ease; recuper- 
ating, while their comrades held the attack, for an- 
other go at it. Their hunters could be seen returning 
with game. It was borne in upon the besieged that 
here at last was a serious determination to stay by 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 229 

until the job was finished, and Boonesborough, 
which had so many times stood in the way of savage 
and of royal ambitions, should be wiped off the bor- 
der. The sounds of digging could now be plainly 
heard; and while Boone ordered the earth from the 
countermine to be thrown ostentatiously over the 
palisades to show that the project was understood, 
this seemed to have no effect in discouraging the 
savages. The latter must have been strongly per- 
suaded by De Quindre of the certainty of success, 
for they hate manual labour, and nobody before nor 
since has ever succeeded in making them do so much 
digging. The trench was all very well, but the most 
sickening uncertainty and anxiety held everyone's 
mind. It might be possible to explode a quantity 
of powder outside the walls to create a breach; or it 
might be deflected to blow in the postern gate; or a 
dozen other contingencies that would occur to men 
already wearied out by constant battling. 

One marksman among the savages caused a great 
deal of trouble. He was possessed of a good rifle, 
and he had gained a position in a tree with limbs so 
peculiarly arranged that he was able to shoot with 
the smallest and briefest exposure. The elevation 
permitted him to fire down into the compound. 
Before his position was located he had done con- 
siderable damage, hitting one or two people, but 



230 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

especially killing the cattle huddled in the centre. 
Among the people he hit was Jemima Boone, now 
Mrs. Flanders Callaway. When the position of 
this marksman was finally located, Boone himself 
ascended to the tower. He had not long to wait. 
The man in the tree prepared himself for another 
shot, and in so doing he exposed the top of his head. 
Boone instantly fired. The hidden marksman, struck 
squarely in the middle of the forehead, fell from 
the tree like a squirrel. He proved to be Pompey, 
the renegade negro. It was a wonderful shot, near 
two hundred measured yards. 

One of the favourite amusements of the Indians 
for the moment off duty was to gather in little 
groups safely out of range and jeer at and insult the 
garrison. Colonel Callaway, who was then get- 
ting pretty old, and who disapproved thoroughly of 
Boone's "irregular" methods of defense, saw here a 
chance to do something according to the approved 
rules of warfare. So, casting back in his knowledge 
of history, he made him a "cannon" in accordance 
with the earliest tradition, out of wood, banded to- 
gether with strap iron. When this wonderful con- 
trivance was finished, it was mounted atop a block- 
house and loaded with musket balls. Nobody but 
the worthy colonel had any faith in the contraption; 
but he touched it off boldly, while the others held 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 231 

back at a safe distance. It went off all right, with a 
most satisfactory whang and whistle of the bullets, 
and an awe-inspiring cloud of white smoke. The 
Indians uttered yells of terror, and fairly fell over 
backwards to get into the woods. None appeared 
again in sight for a long time; and when they did it 
was at a greatly increased range. The old man 
turned her loose again. Once more the noise; once 
more the cloud of white smoke; but when the latter 
cleared away it was found that the noble cannon had 
wrecked herself. She was a one-shot gun. The 
Indians evidently suspected what had happened, 
for they repeatedly dared the garrison to "shoot 
the big gun again." 

Now on the seventh night after the arrival of the 
Indians the defenders were subjected to the grand 
assault of which all this previous fighting had been 
but a preparation intended to wear them down. 
Suddenly when, it is reported, "such a movement was 
entirely unexpected," the Indians succeeded in 
lodging fire-bundles against the side of the stockade 
and in shooting blazing arrows to the roofs of the 
cabins on that side of the fort. Immediately they 
swept the place with bullets, concentrating in such 
a manner that no human being attempting to ex- 
tinguish the flames could live for a moment. The 
arrowheads had been wrapped in flax looted from 



232 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

one of the outside cabins, and with the inner oily 
fibre of the shell-bark hickory, and therefore they 
burned fiercely. For the first time the lofty spirits 
of the defenders fell to despair. The water supply 
was so nearly exhausted that there was not enough 
to be of any avail. By the use of brooms, themselves 
inflammable, the arrows on the roofs might be coped 
with; though even then at the greatest risk; but there 
seemed no way of reaching the conflagration against 
the stockade. The flames were by now blazing 
high, and the ruddy light was reflecting on the dis- 
tant trees of the forest, whence the pandemonium of 
yells and savage cries, and the constant rattle and 
roar of the firearms assaulted even the calm and 
silent cup of heaven. The white men did what they 
could. A young fellow, whose name I have not 
been able to trace, sprang upon the roof and worked 
coolly for some moments, fully exposed to a con- 
centrated fire by the enemy. In that hail of bullets 
it did not seem possible that any one could live for 
even the fraction of a second. The logs were shot to 
splinters about his feet, his clothes were pierced in 
several places, but he was untouched. When he 
had finished his task he uttered a defiant yell and 
leaped down. His preservation appeared to be a 
miracle, and greatly impressed the superstitions of 
the savages. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 233 

But in the meantime the stockade itself blazed 
merrily, and there was nothing to be done about it. 
The fort at last seemed doomed, and the blackest 
despair seized even these stout hearts. 

So busily had the attack and defense been con- 
ducted; so rapidly had exciting and absorbing events 
followed one another; so brightly had the flames 
burned; that neither side had noticed a change that 
had slowly been taking place out in the calm spaces 
beyond the influence of these fierce passions. The 
clear brilliant dome of heaven had veiled. The 
aloof stars had dimmed, then had withdrawn one by 
one until the arch of the firmament was black. A 
little wind had sighed through the forest, a wind 
from the south, that in happier times would have 
carried with it the scent of damp things and the 
sound of croak-frogs. The night drew down closer 
and closer above the treetops. The little wind 
grew. And then with a crash and a flash, as though 
the "big gun" had again spoken, the sudden tor- 
rential thunderstorm of summer hot weather broke. 
Instantly the roofs began to stream. The brilliance 
of the fires was dimmed, flickered, died to dull red- 
ness, went out. Complete darkness took possession; 
and shortly complete silence, except for the roar of 
faUing rain and the tinkle and drip of running water. 

The discouraged and disgusted Indians withdrew 



234 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

for the moment. Inside the fort the settlers, with 
thanksgiving in their hearts, hastened to reassure 
their damaged defenses and to catch in all sorts of 
vessels as much as possible of the precious fluid. 
"Boonesborough," as Ranck expresses it, "was 
saved by the skin of its teeth." 

From this time forward the Indians seemed to pin 
all their hopes on the tunnel they were digging. 
Their persistency in the hated manual labour was 
remarkable. On their side the settlers continued 
to beat off the numerous smaller attacks, to reply 
to the continuous fire, and to attempt to the best 
of their ability to dig countermines that would have 
at least a chance of effectiveness. The tower was 
always occupied by the best marksmen alert to 
take snap shots at any warrior who exposed him- 
self on his way to or from the tunnel and the camp. 
These men were old hunters, familiar with the Shaw- 
nee language, and they whiled away their time ban- 
tering with their enemies with what Ranck calls a 
*' curious courtesy." 

"*What are you red rascals doing down there.?'" 
he reports an old hunter as shouting. 

"^Digging,' would be the return yell, *Blow you 
all to the devil soon. What you do?' 

" 'Oh,' would be the cheerful reply, *we are digging 
to meet you, and intend to bury five hundred of you'." 




Be ivas out to kill in his madness; yet he refused to permit 
the torture of prisoners 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 235 

And as the terrible days and nights succeeded one 
another hopes faded as to the arrival of the re en- 
forcements. The men from Holston should long 
since have arrived. The extending delay might 
well mean that they had not started, might not be 
coming at all; and re enforcement seemed the only 
hope. The savages had unending resources, and 
for once unending patience. The garrison had 
dwindling supplies, dwindling energies. Sooner or 
later they must succumb. At this exact period 
Ranck reports their condition as follows: 

**The outlook was black indeed. It was raining, 
and the pent-up people could slake their thirst, but 
they were worn out by the labour, the heat, and 
incessant watching and by privations, for the long- 
drawn-out provisions were about exhausted, and 
though some of the miserably reduced livestock re- 
mained, the pioneers had already reached the star- 
vation point." 

The tunnel had by now approached so close to the 
works that those back of the walls could distinctly 
hear the click of the implements. It was very 
evident that the time was at hand and that that 
very night the culmination would be reached. 
Nothing remained to be done. In uncertainty and 
anxiety the harassed and weary little band must 
wait the dark hours that would at last bring the 



236 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

long-delayed rush of the enemy. And to complete, 
as they thought, the tragic circle of their bad luck, 
it began shortly to rain, and the rain increased to a 
storm. "The night was so dark," says Ranck, 
"that the keenest watchers had no chance, except 
the poor one the flashes of lightning gave, to detect 
an advance of the enemy above the ground, while 
the tumult of the pouring rain and wind-swept for- 
ests drowned all other sounds and favoured every 
movement of the mining force." Nobody could 
guess the form the attack was to take; though all 
knew it would come off that night. They might 
blow up the postern gate and then rush in; they 
might penetrate to the countermine and thus gain 
entrance; they might have some deeper plan. The 
men and women and children could only wait 
through the slow dark hours for the bloody work 
to begin. At every loophole stood a watcher, the 
rain streaming from his bronzed countenance, strain- 
ing his eyes into the thick darkness, straining his 
ears against the roaring storm ; seeing nothing, hear- 
ing nothing, relaxing only for brief moments to 
curse deeply and fervently the fact that out of all 
the days of the year this one should have brought so 
fatal a tumult of the elements. 

Slowly the hours crept by, and still the attack 
delayed. The exhausted men did not dare leave their 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 237 

posts for a single instant. Midnight passed. One 
by one the hours of the early morning filed by on 
lagging steps. The first faint streaks of dawn showed 
in the east. The gray daylight came. Incredulous 
the defenders stared at one another. Not only had 
there been no assault during the hours most favour- 
able, but for the first time in the long siege the rifle 
fire had ceased. The men at the loopholes reported 
the whole force of savages in leisurely retreat. 

This was an old stratagem and nobody was de- 
ceived. But shortly across the stump-dotted no- 
man's land two figures could be discerned approach- 
ing. The figures were soon identified as Simon 
Kenton and Montgomery who, as you remember, 
had stayed behind in the heart of the Indian country 
for the purpose of stealing horses or "getting a shot 
or so." For the past week they had been hovering 
back of the Indian forces awaiting a chance to slip 
through. Now they brought the astounding news 
that the besiegers were in truth withdrawing. It 
seemed incredible; but it was true. 

On investigation, however, the cause was ap- 
parent. A great quantity of faggots, kindling, and 
heavier fuel had been accumulated, which was to 
have been used by means of the tunnel approach to 
pile up against the stockade. Success at the first 
attempt with fire had come so close that we cannot 



238 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

wonder the savages had every confidence that this 
more careful plan could not fail. But the heavy 
rainstorm, which the defenders had so vigorously 
and mistakenly cursed, had wet everything down so 
thoroughly that fire was out of the question. That 
would not have mattered: it would have meant 
merely a postponement; but the rain had even further 
fulfilled its role under Providence. By now the 
ground had become pretty thoroughly soaked. 
This last torrential downpour had finished the 
softening of the earth, and the tunnel had caved in! 
Such a catastrophe was too much for the patience 
of the Indians, already strained to the breaking 
point. Do what De Quindre and the other white 
men could, they were unable to overcome the re- 
action of a fierce disgust. Every plan they had 
made had gone wrong. At every juncture, it 
seemed, an especial miracle had saved the fort. 
Even the fact that the young hero who had worked 
among the blazing arrows on the roofs had not been 
hit by at least one of the hail of bullets that sang 
around him seemed to them a mark of especial 
protection by the Great Spirit. But when the re- 
sult of so much and such unaccustomed manual 
labour was destroyed in an instant, they just suffered 
a revulsion of feeling and quit in disgust. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE first thing that occurred after the raising 
of the siege was a regrettable act of preju- 
dice. Old Colonel Callaway had throughout 
the conduct of the defense resented the fact that 
Boone and not himself was at the head of affairs. 
Boone had not the military rank, and by strict 
military etiquette he probably was not in command. 
The settlers, however, insisted that he should lead 
them; and their confidence in his ability was jus- 
tified. But the Colonel resented it: and immediately 
the Indians departed he insisted on preferring court- 
martial charges against Boone, accusing him, among 
other things, of treachery in attempting negotiations 
at all. Nothing could dissuade him from this fool- 
ish step, so Boone appeared. He was promptly ac- 
quitted of all charges, and the formal title and rank 
of major was conferred upon him so that there could 
be no similar trouble in the future. 

About a week later the Holston men, the long- 
expected re enforcements, arrived, and Boone felt 
that at last he could rejoin his family. The enemy 
was defeated. Indeed for a time after this the 

239 



240 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

white men kept them very busy in their own coun- 
try by small expeditions. The guides on these 
expeditions were Boone's salt-makers, most of whom 
had by now been ransomed or exchanged from 
British captivity, and who of course knew the 
country well. 

"Never," says Boone himself, "did the Indians 
pursue so disastrous a policy as when they captured 
me and my salt boilers, and taught us, what we did 
not know before, the way to their towns and the 
geography of their country; for though at first our 
captivity was considered a great calamity to Ken- 
tucky, it resulted in the most signal benefits to the 
country." 

He found his wife and children again settled in a 
small log cabin in the country of the Yadkin. His 
appearance was the first intimation they had that 
he was not dead; and you can imagine the rejoicing, 
and that for a little period even the great Scout was 
content to settle down in peace. 

But soon his restless spirit stirred again. The 
enactment of new land laws had stimulated a great 
tide of migration over the Wilderness Road. George 
Rogers Clark had captured Kaskaskia and Vin- 
cennes; Colonel Bowman had raided into the Indian 
country even as far as Chillicothe, and, while beaten 
off, had nevertheless sensibly abated the Indians' 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 241 

thirst for foreign raids. In this fight the chief, 
Blackfish, was killed. The Indian danger, while al- 
ways present, was not as great. Robinson, of Ken- 
tucky, gives us a vivid picture: 

"Through privations incredible and perils thick 
thousands of men, women, and children came in 
successive caravans, forming continuous streams of 
human beings, horses, cattle, and other domestic 
animals, all moving onward along a lonely and house- 
less path to a wild and cheerless land. Behold the 
men on foot with their trusty guns on their shoulders, 
driving stock and leading packhorses, and the 
women, some walking with pails on their heads, 
others riding with children in their laps, and other 
children swung in baskets on horses fastened to the 
tails of others going before; see them encamped at 
night expecting to be massacred by Indians; behold 
them in the mouth of December in that ever-mem- 
orable season of unprecedented cold called the *hard 
winter,' travelling two or three miles a day, fre- 
quently in danger of being frozen, or killed by the fall- 
ing horses on the icy and almost impassable trace." 

Boone could not long stand inaction. In October 
he returned with his family to Boonesborough, at 
the head of a band of neighbours; and it is note- 
worthy that he had with him two small cannon, 
the first to be taken into the country. It is also 



242 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

noteworthy that one of his comrades was Abraham 
Lincoln, the grandfather of the great President. 
The Boones and the Lincolns had always been close 
friends — indeed had intermarried — and now the 
Lincolns were following the Hunter's advice and 
moving to the new land. This was in 1780. 

And 1780 was known as the Hard Winter. For 
seventy-five years after, it is said, men counted time 
from it. It will be recalled that this was the year 
that the heroes of the Revolution, on the Atlantic 
seaboard, suffered so severely. The autumn was es- 
pecially late and mild, but the middle of November 
brought a cold snap that lasted without interruption 
for months. The snow was extraordinarily deep, 
and heavy winds drifted it. Immigrant wagons 
were stalled and held until the spring thaws. The 
streams were solid. The snow on the ground was 
crusted, the trees were as though made of glass, the 
firewood had to be chopped from blocks of ice. The 
very animals perished of the extreme cold; cattle 
and hogs around the station, and even bears, buffalo, 
wolves, and wild turkeys were found frozen in the 
woods. Sometimes the starving wild animals would 
come up to the very gates of the fort, accompanying 
the domestic cattle. 

This was bad enough, but in addition the settlers 
themselves were very hard up for food. During 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 243 

Boone's absence the Indian troubles had gone 
on. Colonel Bowman had made an incursion into 
the Indian country and suffered defeat. George 
Rogers Clark had had better luck, and had burned 
the Indian towns of Chillicothe and Piqua after a 
sharp battle. On the other side a British officer. 
Colonel Byrd, at the head of a large force and 
equipped with two small cannon, had started into 
Kentucky. The wooden forts could not stand 
against ordnance of that sort. Two of the lesser 
stockades were taken and their inhabitants mas- 
sacred or carried off into captivity. Fortunately 
for the rest of the Kentucky strongholds Byrd 
could not control the savages, who scattered to their 
villages intent on reaping the glory of this success. 
And all summer long smaller raiding parties on both 
sides were slipping back and forth across the border, 
inflicting what damage they could. At Boones- 
borough Colonel Callaway and a number of others 
were killed within rifle shot of the walls. Every- 
where the Indians penetrated, they had indus- 
triously destroyed the crops; so that at the end of 
summer little corn was harvested. So in addition 
to the severity of the weather we see these people 
facing starvation as well. "Such was the scarcity 
of food," Bogart tells us, "that a single johnny-cake 
would be divided into a dozen parts, and distributed 



244 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

around to the inmates to serve for two meals. Sixty 
dollars a bushel was given for corn." The people 
lived largely on wild game, which was lean, poor, and 
unpalatable. Boone and Harrod hunted all winter 
in the severest of the weather, making long trips 
into the wilderness. The only gleam of comfort 
in the whole situation was that the cold kept the 
savages at home. 

The winter was further saddened for the Boones by 
a tragedy that had occurred in October. Daniel 
and his brother Edward went hunting in the di- 
rection of the Blue Licks. On the return journey 
they were ambushed in the thick forest. At the 
crack of their rifles Edward fell dead; but Daniel, 
seeming still to have a charmed life, shot the savage 
who had killed his brother, and leaped aside into the 
underbrush untouched. The savages yelled and 
rushed forward. The momentary delay while they 
scalped the younger Boone gave the elder his needed 
start. Stopping only once to reload and shoot an- 
other pursuer, he ran for three miles, twisting and 
doubling in the dense and tangled wilderness; by 
which time the Scout, with his usual display of 
woodcraft and endurance, had succeeded in shaking 
oflp all his human foes. But the Indians possessed 
a "smell-hound," as the quaint old diction has it; 
and the animal followed inexorably on the white 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 245 

man's trail. Finally, the Scout was forced in his 
turn to ambush the dog, when his never-erring rifle 
did the rest. But few of his many losses and mis- 
fortunes seem to have hit the Pioneer as did this. 
It struck as close to his heart as had even the death 
of his son, and yet we see his philosophy unruffled; 
and his simple justice toward all men, both white 
and red, unembittered. 

Nor were these misfortunes more than begun. 
After Virginia had declared the proceedings of 
Judge Henderson's land company null and void it 
naturally followed that the titles to the land he 
had given were not worth anything. The colony 
made laws by which it was intended that the original 
settlers would be able to repurchase the same land, 
and so get clear title. Unfortunately, the drafting 
of those laws was in the hands of lawyers, and they 
made the process so complicated, tied it up with so 
much red tape, and required so many different steps 
in what should have been a simple matter that even 
to-day the mere reading of them over makes your 
head reel. You can imagine the effect they would 
have had on rough and illiterate frontiersmen. 
They could make neither head nor tail of it all, and 
in their attempts to fulfil the law's requirements 
they naturally made mistakes. Of these technical 
mistakes sharpers took advantage, so that it is a 



246 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

fact that in most instances the men who had pion- 
eered and fought for this land in the end found them- 
selves without an acre of it. 

But this spring, the first year the new law was 
in effect, several of the settlers raised about twenty 
thousand dollars and sent Boone out to Richmond to 
act as agent for them. With this he took every 
dollar he could raise of his own. In some manner 
that is not recorded he was robbed. The sympathy 
for the honest pioneer was almost universal, so that 
the Legislature of Virginia promptly voted him a 
thousand acres of land free of charge, but there were 
not lacking the usual evil minds that whispered 
carelessness or actual dishonesty. This drew from 
the very men who had entrusted him with their 
money, and who had lost all of it, a tribute so fine 
that it is worth quoting here. It is an extract from 
a letter by Thomas Hart, the principal loser: 

"I observe what you say respecting our losses by 
Daniel Boone. I heard of the misfortune soon after 
it happened, but not of my being a partaker before 
now. I feel for the poor people, who, perhaps, are 
to lose even their preemptions, but I must say I feel 
more for Boone. Much degenerated must the people 
of this age be, when amongst them are to be found 
men to censure and blast the reputation of a person 
so just and upright, and in whose breast is a seat of 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 247 

virtue too pure to admit of a thought so base and 
dishonourable. I have known Boone in time of old, 
when poverty and distress had him fast by the hand; 
and in those wretched circumstances I have ever 
found him of a noble and generous soul, despising 
everything mean; and, therefore, I will freely grant 
him a discharge for whatever sums of mine he might 
have been possessed of at the time." 

While Boone was in Richmond he had an oppor- 
tunity to call upon Hamilton who had been the 
Governor at Detroit during Boone's captivity, and 
who had there showed him such kindness. Now 
Hamilton was himself a prisoner, having been cap- 
tured at Vincennes by George Rogers Clark. 

The next two years were full of varied excitement. 
Boone went to Richmond as a legislator. There he 
was captured, with others, by Tarleton; but was 
paroled after a few days. The conditions of the 
parole probably prevented his serving again, for he 
returned to Kentucky, after visiting his friends and 
relatives in Pennsylvania. On his return to Boones- 
borough he moved his family to a point about five 
miles away. There he put up a stockade of his own. 
The place was called Boone's Station and there he 
took up his abode, making again a home in the 
wilderness. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE darkest and bloodiest years of Ken- 
tucky's history were now to follow. The 
earliest pioneers had maintained themselves, 
as we have seen, against tremendous odds, but never 
against a skilfully led concerted movement. The 
new immigrants had built themselves stockades here 
and there, and had established a rough sort of 
militia organization for mutual aid. Boone re- 
ceived the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

At Detroit, on the other hand, the British used 
their utmost influence to arouse the Indians. By 
means of promises, gifts and warnings as to the con- 
stantly rising tide of white immigration they called 
in the most distant tribes to the warpath. The 
hope they offered was based on prospects of success 
under a new policy of concerted action and no 
quarter given. They were the more excited to 
effort by the fact that on the Atlantic seaboard the 
tide of war had at last turned. The battles of 
King's Mountain and the Cowpens had been fought, 
and Yorktown was not long to wait. Now, if ever, 
the British must strike decisively, if they hoped to 

248 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 249 

retain any of the rich domain of the West. And 
Hke desperate men they used desperate means. It 
is a blot on history, and gave birth to a slow-dying 
hatred. The Indians took the warpath every- 
where; often led by white men more savage than 
themselves, such men as the Girtys and McKee, 
renegades from their own side, filled with hatred of 
their kind, and inspired by a relentless cruelty that 
had not even the Indian code of custom and honour 
to restrain it. Once more all the border was aflame, 
and the annals of the time are filled with raids, 
burnings, massacres, tortures, and captivities; with 
heroic defenses against odds; with hairbreadth es- 
capes; with stratagem and bravery. At that not 
one tenth was ever told. The people were too busy 
with their bitter and desperate conflict for a foothold, 
for very existence, to have left any record of a heroism 
that became almost a daily commonplace to them. 
For the land hunger had bitten the vitals of the 
people, and in face of the horrors of savage warfare 
they were still pouring in. 

They came over the Wilderness Road in hundreds. 
They floated in even greater numbers in flat boats 
down the Ohio. These flat boats were huge affairs, 
scow built, from twenty to sixty feet in length, 
broad of beam, unbelievably clumsy. The people 
embarked on them with all their goods, including 



250 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

their horses and domestic animals. As the demand 
greatly exceeded the supply, these craft were always 
crowded fully to the danger point, and away beyond 
the comfort point. They were handled by long 
sweeps, and must, of course, drift with the current. 
The whole duration of the voyage must be spent on 
board, for the banks of the river were always oc- 
cupied by savages, following like vultures the slow 
progress of the flotilla, awaiting eagerly an oppor- 
tunity for successful attack. If one of these scows 
swung in too close to either bank, if it lagged behind 
or ran ahead of its convoy, if it deviated for an in- 
stant from the narrow strip of mid-stream safety, it 
was fired at, pounced upon, its occupants mas- 
sacred without mercy. The published accounts of 
such instances would fill many volumes the size of 
this. 

It was, on the whole, good scalp-hunting for the 
Indians, never better. While many of these new- 
comers to the country were a hard-bitten, wary, ex- 
perienced lot and could take care of themselves with 
the best, and while others employed old-time bor- 
derers to act as guides, a very large number had 
little or no experience with Indians. These often 
fell an easy prey. 

Possibly the fact that scalp-hunting was so good 
went far toward preventing large concerted actions. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 251 

The Indians would rather roam about in small 
parties, ambushing, killing and scalping; making 
isolated attacks on outlying cabins and small settle- 
ments, than gather in big formal armies for con- 
sidered invasions. Indeed, it is recorded that in the 
summer of 1781 McKee, Brant, and a number of other 
British leaders and Indian chiefs assembled an army 
of over a thousand braves for the purpose of opposing 
George Rogers Clark. Brant went off on a scout 
with about a hundred warriors and destroyed a 
party of white men utterly. The Indians were 
vastly pleased at this, and immediately wanted to 
quit the whole expedition and go home to brag 
about it. Then they heard that Clark had aban- 
doned his project. The rumour was enough. In 
spite of the commanders' best efforts the Indians 
began at once to disband, some returning to their 
villages to celebrate their little victory, the rest 
scattering in all directions to do the individual raid- 
ing they loved. So that expedition dissolved. 

In this manner, though the warfare was con- 
tinuous, and very deadly, it was more a series of in- 
dividual combats and skirmishes than a settled cam- 
paign. For that reason the exciting stories of the 
time are almost without number. It would be im- 
possible to tell a hundredth part of them; but here 
are a few samples, very briefly related. They are 



252 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

not especially noteworthy, as compared to the 
others. 

At a small fort called Estill's Station twenty-five 
Indians by a sudden dash killed and scalped a young 
woman and carried off a negro slave. Estill and 
seventeen men at once rode in pursuit. They caught 
up with the marauders, who proved to be Wyandots,' 
and at once engaged them. For two hours the 
fight lasted, the Indians refusing to give ground, 
and for some reason fighting stubbornly on in the 
face of heavy loss. At the end of that time there 
remained only six Indians and two white men! 
These withdrew hy common consent. 

At the "crab orchard" a woman, her children, and 
one negro happened to be alone in a cabin while the 
men were absent. Suddenly the door opened and a 
painted warrior slipped in. With the instant pres- 
ence of mind of frontier children, the youngsters 
slammed and bolted the door behind him before 
others could enter. The woman, in a desperate 
fury, attacked the warrior with an axe and actually 
cut his head from his shoulders! After that the 
little garrison made so brave a defense that the 
raiding party withdrew. 

In the Wyandot nation were seven warriors who 
hunted and made war together as a band. Four of 
them were brothers, and all of them were men of 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 253 

great stature and strength. They had made num- 
berless raids into white territory, and had gradually 
become known and dreaded. Now in a settlement 
near the scene of one of these raids lived two brothers, 
Adam and Andrew Poe, equally famed for strength 
and skill; and they were two of the eight white 
men who took the Wyandots' trail. The pursuers, 
helped by the moon, managed to follow at night; 
and so by the following morning found themselves 
near the enemy. Andrew Poe thereupon turned 
off at a stream, intending to sneak up the bed and 
so get in the rear of the Indians. As he neared the 
stream he heard something; and creeping up cau- 
tiously he found himself looking down on two Indians 
whispering together. One of them Andrew recog- 
nized by his truly gigantic stature and bulk to be 
Bigfoot, the most renowned of the fighters. Andrew 
aimed at this chief; but his rifle missed fire. Before 
the startled Indians could move, Andrew leaped down 
on them from above. He landed on Bigfoot and 
knocked him down, and at the same movement got 
his arm around the smaller Indian's neck, so that all 
three of them rolled on the ground. For a moment 
or so Andrew managed to pin them down, but before 
he could get hold of his knife Bigfoot wrapped his 
arms tightly about him and shouted to the other 
Indian to run for his tomahawk, which had been 



254 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

spilled on the shore a few feet away. Andrew im- 
mediately discovered that the chief was too power- 
ful for him, so he ceased to struggle; but he kept his 
eye on the other Indian, and as the latter ran up 
with the tomahawk Andrew kicked him so hard in 
the chest as to knock the tomahawk out of his hand 
and send him staggering. He recovered immediately 
both his health and his tomahawk and again ap- 
proached. This time he struck, but Andrew wriggled 
enough to take the blow on his arm instead of his 
head. The wound was a deep one, but it did not 
appear to disable him. He put forth all his strength 
and wrenched himself free. With the agility of a 
panther he sprang to where a loaded rifle lay on the 
sand, snatched it up, and shot the smaller Indian: 
but was immediately seized again by the giant and 
hauled to the ground. Instantly the two were 
locked together in a furious hand-to-hand struggle. 
They had no weapons, as each had lost both his 
knife and tomahawk. Andrew was the smaller 
man, but he had great skill in wrestling and boxing 
so the contest was now not so uneven as it looked. 
Over and over they fought on the sands of the shore, 
sometimes one on top, sometimes the other, until they 
rolled into the river. Andrew caught the chief by the 
scalp lock and held him under water. Fainter grew 
his struggles; at last they ceased. Andrew relaxed 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 9.55 

his hold. Instantly the Indian was on his feet and 
rushing on his enemy. He had been pretending dead, 
*' playing possum." The enemies floundered into 
deep water, and there they drew apart and struck out 
for the shore. Here the Indian excelled, and Andrew 
was outdistanced. The chief struck shallow water and 
ran up the sands to seize the rifle. Andrew at once 
turned to swim out into the stream, keeping an eye on 
the chief, and hoping to escape the shot by diving. 
While Andrew Poe was in all this various tribu- 
lation, his brother and the other six white men 
had run across the rest of the Indians. They dis- 
covered each other at the same instant. A fierce 
combat took place. Three of the white men and 
four Indians were killed, and the solitary surviving 
Wyandot escaped badly wounded. From this bloody 
fight Adam emerged unhurt, and at once went in 
search of his brother in the direction from which the 
sound of a shot had come, that with which Andrew 
had killed the smaller Indian. Adam came out on 
the bank above the river at the precise moment that 
Andrew had turned to swim away, and the chief had 
seized the empty rifle from the sands. Andrew 
was covered with blood and unrecognizable. Adam 
thought him an Indian and fired at him, hitting him 
in the shoulder, and hardly had he pulled trigger 
when he saw the chief. 



^56 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

The white man and the Wyandot faced each other 
with empty guns. The Indian grinned. 

"Who load first, shoot first," he challenged. 

The men dropped the butts of their rifles to the 
ground. It became a very pretty race as to which 
could beat the other in loading. The chief was ex- 
pert, and was well ahead in this novel contest up to 
the moment when he attempted to use his ramrod. 
It slipped through his fingers and fell into the stream. 
With the cool judgment of the practised warrior he 
knew he had lost, and with the fortitude of a savage 
he accepted his fate calmly. Letting fall his piece 
on the sands he tore open the front of his shirt to 
expose his breast, and fell with the ball through his 
heart. Andrew was then rescued by his brother. 

A very remarkable episode mentioned by all the 
writers of that time occurred after a successful 
attack on one of the flat boats we mentioned a time 
back. The massacre was pretty complete, but two 
men managed to escape notice and hide out until 
the Indians had gone. Then by great good luck 
they discovered one another: for one of them had 
both arms broken, and the other both legs! 

"Well," said one of them cheerfully, "we've got 
all the arms and legs we need between us." And 
they started out methodically to supply each other's 
deficiencies. For some weeks they lived near the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 257 

battlefield. The man who had his legs did all the 
walking: he pushed firewood over to his friend; he 
made long cautious circuits and drove game in; he 
carried the other pickaback when it became abso- 
lutely necessary to use a pair of hands at a distance. 
The other man built the fire, did the cooking, fed 
his companion, shot the game driven toward him. 
A flat boat picked them up eventually. 

Another of these flat-boat massacres took place 
when a great many Indians cut off several boats from 
a convoy. All but one of those so cut off were cap- 
tured and their occupants killed; but one, under 
command of an old sea captain, put up a desperate 
defense from behind the frail bulwarks. One by 
one the men were killed or wounded; the horses and 
cattle aboard were panic stricken; the women and 
children huddled low, not knowing from one second 
to another whether they would be trampled to 
death, would receive a bullet, or would see painted 
forms leaping over the gunwale. Indeed twice the 
Indians did come to close grips and were only 
beaten off by the most desperate fighting. At last 
the attack was withdrawn and the wounded could 
be cared for, the dead animals removed, and the 
slain white people prepared for burial. It was a 
sad task and a long task; but at length it was finished, 
and the shattered little band floated in some sem- 



258 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

blance of order down the stream. Then up spoke a 
boy of eleven years who had sat huddled out of the 
way at one end of the boat. 

"Captain," he said, "will you see what you can do 
for my head.^^" 

The captain looked. A bullet, probably spent 
from passing through the planks, had lodged under 
the skin of the boy's forehead. Carefully the sea- 
man cut it out. The boy did not wince. 

"Now, captain," he begged as the other turned 
away, "will you look at my arm." 

It turned out that the elbow had been broken by a 
shot. Before the arm was bound up the captain was 
forced to remove a piece of bone. 

"There, my lad," said he when the operation was 
finished, "But why didn't you sing out?" 

"You ordered us to lie down and make no noise," 
replied the boy, "and," he added quaintly, "there 
was noise enough without mine." 

In an outlying cabin lived a settler named Binga- 
man. The cabin had one room below, and a loft. 
Below slept Bingaman, his wife and child and his old 
mother. In the loft was a hired man. Late one 
night the inmates were awakened by a terrific 
crash on the door. Eight Indians had assailed the 
cabin, and had run at the door with a log of wood as 
a battering ram. Bingaman had just time to leap 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 259 

from the bed and seize his rifle when the door gave 
way. Instantly he discharged the piece at the dark 
figures in the doorway. Four or five streaks of fire 
answered him. He swept the two women and the 
child under the bed and clubbing his long heavy 
rifle, leaped single-handed against the foe. The door 
had swung to and the room was in absolute darkness. 
Like a madman Bingaman laid about him. Several 
times he was grappled and borne down, but each 
time his wiry strength enabled him to shake himself 
free. One after another his foes were killed or 
crippled by his powerful blows until at last but one 
remained; and this one fled terror-stricken. When 
a light was struck the place looked like a shambles. 
The women and the child crept forth from under the 
bed. Bingaman then discovered that at the first 
fire his wife had been wounded in the breast. At 
that it took the combined persuasions of all three to 
prevent his going up in the loft to kill the hired man, 
who had prudently kept out of it. 

But we have not the space to multiply instances. 
It is stated that in these years fifteen hundred white 
people were massacred in Kentucky. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THESE troubles came to a climax in July of 
1782. Two British officers. Captains Caldwell 
and McKee, started from Detroit in command 
of over a thousand Indians, a tremendous army for 
those days. This great force was to settle the matter 
once and for all; crush the feeble and scattered forts; 
massacre the inhabitants, already exhausted by the 
long struggle; and so assure the vast country west of 
the Allegheny for the crown. It was by far the largest 
body of men, either white or red, ever gotten together 
west of the mountains. It had every prospect of 
success, but the expedition fizzled out, as so many 
had done before it, because of the inability of Indians 
in large bodies to "carry through." They were no 
sooner well started than somebody came into camp 
with the rumour that George Rogers Clark intended 
to attack the Shawnee villages. That was enough. 
Clark's determined midwinter march against Vin- 
cennes had impressed the Indians with the idea that 
nothing was impossible to him. In vain did Cald- 
well and McKee appeal to their reason and common 
sense. It did no good to ask whence Clark had ob- 

260 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 261 

tained his men, how he was going to get to the Shaw- 
nee villages; the red men remembered distinctly that 
in the dead of winter, and apparently from the 
middle of an overflowed flood of ice water, Clark had 
once materialized out of the thin air. They turned 
around and scuttled back to see about those precious 
villages. 

Of course the rumour was entirely groundless, 
but that did the harassed Britons little good. Once 
the savages had retasted the delights of home life 
and stewed fresh corn they hated to arouse them- 
selves for the second time to face the discomforts 
and dangers of the war trail. After trying without 
avail to rekindle the spark of enterprise McKee and 
Caldwell had to set out again with only three hundred 
instead of the thousand. The reason they retained 
three hundred was because these faithful adherents 
were not Shawnees, but Hurons and lake tribes, and 
so still far from home. Three hundred was even 
yet a formidable force but it was not a crushing force. 
They crossed the Ohio and at once proceeded to 
attack one of the small stockaded forts, called 
Bryan's or Bryant's Station. This was the north- 
ernmost, and if the Indians could take it by surprise, 
the four other stations north of the Kentucky River 
should fall an easy prey. The over-eagerness of some 
of the younger Indian spies betrayed them to the 



262 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

white scouts, who managed to get a warning to the 
garrison. Now occurred the heroic deed before 
narrated when under the eyes of the savages the 
women and children went to the spring to bring in a 
supply of water. Hardly were they within the walls 
of the fort, however, when the Indians perceived that 
their presence was known; perhaps by the slamming 
shut of the big gate. At any rate, they attacked so 
suddenly that one or two white men, who had lingered 
in the cornfields just outside, were killed. 

At first but a small body of the Indians mani- 
fested themselves. They appeared at a safe dis- 
tance, yelling and prancing about, hurling defiance 
at the fort, hoping to decoy the whites into the open, 
or at least to attract all attention to that side of the 
fort in order to give a chance for the real rush on the 
other. But these seasoned old Indian fighters were 
not deceived. A dozen of the youngest and most 
active men were slipped out through the gate and 
instructed to make a lot of noise and carry on a mock 
combat with the decoy band of Indians. In the 
meantime, the defenders silently gathered behind the 
walls on the other side of the fort. 

Sure enough, hardly had the young men begun to 
bang away and yell, when a vast horde of Indian 
warriors rushed the walls from the other side. The 
long Kentucky rifles spoke with deadly accuracy. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 263 

The attack withered back discouraged, and the 
young men on the other side, laughing heartily, and 
mocking the decoys, slipped back through the gate. 
At once the Indians surrounded the whole fort, each 
creeping up as close as he could find shelter; and 
opening fire in the usual Indian fashion. This kept 
up for several hours. 

The white men had sent out their swiftest run- 
ners, when first the news of Indians was brought, to 
seek aid at the other stations. By luck one of these 
came across a force of men from Lexington out with 
the intention of cutting off the retreat of marauding 
savages across the Kentucky. Nobody seems to 
have had the slightest idea that the red men were out 
in such force. The scouts must have encountered 
only small advance parties. Major Todd and forty 
men were detached from the main body to rescue 
the fort ! Seventeen of these were on horseback : the 
rest on foot. 

There is no question that this little band would 
have been killed to the last man had it not been that 
the Indians were completely surprised by their ap- 
pearance. Evidently they had not expected any one 
from the outside for some time yet. Todd and his 
men came toward the fort by a road that led 
through a field of corn taller than a man; and were 
right among the Indians before they were seen. A 



264 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

few startled warriors fired upon them. Todd and 
the horsemen struck spurs to their horses and riding 
hard reached the fort. The footmen doubled back 
and disappeared in the dense forest before the foe 
recovered his wits. One of these, however, was 
killed, and three wounded. 

A few years before this time the situation of the 
fort would have been even more desperate than was 
that of Boonesborough in its memorable siege. But 
Boonesborough stood alone in a wilderness, while 
now, within reasonable distance, were many settle- 
ments from which reenforcements would shortly 
come. The Indians and their white allies understood 
this perfectly. All that night the little garrison were 
subjected to one ferocious attack upon another, 
with the usual shooting of blazing arrows, rushing 
of the stockade with flaring torches. The defenders 
managed by terrific effort to maintain the walls, and 
the day broke with the fort still safe. 

Our old acquaintance, Simon Girty, was with the 
invaders, and at one time tried to scare the garrison 
into surrender by tall talk of artillery. Of course 
you can readily see that even one small iron cannon 
would have changed utterly all this backwoods war- 
fare. No stockade could have stood for a moment. 
Therefore artillery was the one thing dreaded. 
Heretofore the distance such a weapon would have to 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 265 

be dragged through a rough and unbroken wilder- 
ness had made its use impossible. But the dread 
was always there. However, nobody was particu- 
larly scared. A young fellow with a ready tongue, 
named Reynolds, happened to be in the garrison. 
He leaped to the parapet in full view. 

"You ask if we do not know you.^" he shouted. 
"Know you! Yes. We know you too well. Know 
Simon Girty! Yes. He is the renegade, cowardly 
villain, who loves to murder women and children, 
especially those of his own people. Know Simon 
Girty! Yes. His father was a panther and his 
dam a wolf. I have a worthless dog that kills 
lambs. Instead of shooting him I have named him 
Simon Girty. You expect cannon, do you.^ Cow- 
ardly wretches like you would not dare touch them 
off if you had them. Even if you could batter down 
our pickets I, for one, hold your people in too much 
contempt to discharge rifles at them. I have been 
roasting a number of hickory switches with which we 
mean to whip your cutthroats out of the country." 

With a laugh he jumped down out of sight just 
in time to escape a hundred or so of exasperated 
bullets. 

However, the Indians knew that Reynolds spoke 
the truth in one particular. They were aware that 
the riflemen of the other settlements must be assem- 



266 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

bling, and would shortly descend upon them. The 
first attack having failed, they had shot their bolt. 
On the morning of the seventeenth of August they 
withdrew, very angry over their failure. 

Before going on with the main narrative, it will 
be amusing for us to learn what further we can of 
this same young fellow, Reynolds, with the "ready 
tongue,'' for later we shall meet him at the dis- 
astrous battle of Blue Licks. His tongue evidently 
was always rather too ready. We encounter him 
in the militia command of a Captain Patterson, de- 
scribed as good-hearted and active, but a "very pro- 
fane swearing man." The latter description must 
have been mild, for at the end of four days Captain 
Patterson decided either to make him modify his 
swearing or send him home. Of course we do not 
know how religious a man Patterson was; but the 
backwoods leaders of those days were not notably 
squeamish. The captain waited until Reynolds was 
in full swing, and then called him down hard and 
publicly. Temporary effect. Next day the "pro- 
fane swearing man" was at it as bad as ever. This 
time Patterson enforced military discipline not only 
by an even severer scolding, but by a promise of a 
bottle of rum if he "immediately quit his profanity 
and swearing." Four days later, when the expe- 
dition had ended, Reynolds demanded his quart. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 267 

Captain Patterson ventured to doubt whether the 
young man had gone four full days without a single 
oath. Reynolds appealed to the company then 
drawn up at parade. To a man they said they had 
not heard Reynolds "cuss a solitary cuss" since he 
had been rebuked. "Then," says the chronicler, 
"the spirits were drank." 

To the fort at Bryan's Station gathered the rifle- 
men summoned to its aid. Boone was one of the 
first, with his neighbours and his son Frank. They 
were the best type of the backwoods fighters, these 
men, but unruly, undisciplined, headlong, and im- 
patient of control. Their leaders persuaded rather 
than commanded them. And owing to the fact 
that they had gathered from many communities 
there was really no one man who could so command 
them all. They were angry and eager for ven- 
geance; and they were exultant over the repulse of 
the Indians by the fort. Next day they set forth, 
one hundred and eighty-two of them, all on horse- 
back, all armed with the long rifle. It was known 
that the County Lieutenant, Logan, was raising a 
large body of men in haste, and would soon be on the 
scene; but those already on the spot feared to await 
his arrival lest the enemy scatter and escape. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE invading band had retreated in a leisurely 
fashion, following the wide, hard-beaten 
buffalo roads that led to the Blue Licks. By 
afternoon the pursuers had come to where their 
enemies had camped the night before. Boone and 
the other leaders examined the indications carefully, 
and easily determined that they were badly outnum- 
bered. However, they continued the pursuit, and 
early the following morning came to the Blue Licks. 
As they drew near, a number of scattered Indians 
could plainly be seen climbing up the rocky ridge on 
the other side of the river. You can imagine how 
this sight excited the hotheads in the party. How- 
ever, in spite of the impatience of the latter, the 
older men halted and called a council. Boone, as 
the most noted Indian fighter, was asked for his 
opinion and advice. 

"We have followed them too easily," he told his 
companions; "the trail has been too plain. It has 
been made plain purposely. Without doubt the 
Indians know that we are an inferior force and 
they want to be followed and attacked. They have 

268 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 269 

marked their trail too plainly, I tell you; they have 
left their campfires burning; and there have been 
too few campfires for the other indications of the 
numbers. They are trying to make us believe they 
are fewer than they are. It has been all right for us 
to press them hard in a hasty pursuit, otherwise they 
might have scattered. My advice is to wait now for 
Logan." 

The responsible men, including the leaders, Todd 
and Trigg, agreed to this; but the younger men, 
under the instigation of a rash fool named Hugh 
McGarry, raised a storm of protest. 

"If we are to attack," then said Boone, "let us 
divide into two parties, one to cross the river in front 
and the other to go around the bend of the river and 
strike the rear." 

"And in the meantime, the red varmints get 
away!" shouted McGarry, with a furious gesture 
toward the handful of savages temptingly exposed 
on the face of the rocks, as they made their slow 
way upward. 

"At least send ahead scouts!" cried Boone in 
desperation. 

But McGarry, raising the warwhoop, spurred into 
the river, brandishing his rifle. 

"All who are not cowards follow me!" he yelled. 

Instantly the wild young fellows, carried away by 



270 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the excitement of the moment, dashed in after him, 
crossing the stream in huddlement and confusion. 
Nothing remained but to follow and to save the 
day if possible. Todd and Trigg took the centre 
and right of the line respectively, while Boone and 
his own men hastened to the left. Almost im- 
mediately the blunderers fell into the ambush. 
Boone won his fight on his own side of the line, 
pushing the enemy back steadily and inflicting about 
all the loss that enemy was to sustain. But the rest 
of the line was simply overwhelmed. Painted war- 
riors arose on all sides of the trap into which head- 
strong folly had led their foes, and poured in a with- 
ering fire. Todd, Trigg, and Harlan, the three 
leaders, were almost immediately killed. A wild 
riot followed. Everyone rushed back toward the 
ford, the pursuing Indians at their heels; indeed, 
fairly among them. Boone's little force on the left, 
without support, found itself abandoned. Sur- 
rounded on three sides by increasing numbers, it, too, 
broke back toward the river. It is recorded that 
Boone himself was the last to leave the field. As he 
drew back his son Frank fell. The old hunter turned 
like a lion at bay, beat off his pressing enemies, 
with an effort heaved the body across his shoulders 
to save it from the scalping knife. As he staggered 
toward the river a gigantic Indian rushed upon him, 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 271 

tomahawk uplifted. With a groan Boone dropped 
the body of his son, shot the Indian through the 
heart, and then, as his enemies closed, leaped away. 

Every inch of this country was known to him. 
He broke through his pursuers to one side, darted 
down a little ravine known only to himself, outran 
several Indians, and finally made his way back to 
Bryan's Station by a widely circuitous route. 

One of Boone's staunchest supporters in the pre- 
liminary councils had been a man named Nether- 
land. Indeed so vehement had he been that the 
younger men had laughed him to scorn as a coward. 
Now in the headlong retreat he led the way and was 
the first to recross the river. We can imagine some 
of his companions, even in the turmoil of this dis- 
aster, sparing him a contemptuous thought. How- 
ever, he proved to be one of the few sensible men 
present, and one with the truest courage. No 
sooner had he gained the south bank when he pulled 
in his horse and dismounted, calling loudly on his 
comrades to make a stand there to cover the flight. 
Almost all within sound of his voice obeyed him. 
They opened a steady, well-directed fire on the pur- 
suers. At that moment the ford was jammed with 
horsemen, footmen, and Indians. Netherland's vig- 
orous fire forced the latter back long enough to per- 
mit the confusion to straighten itself out a little. 



272 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

On the south bank the white men began to defend 
themselves and, in small groups, to retreat slowly. 

Now among the participants in this battle were 
both that "profane swearing man, " Aaron Reynolds, 
and his old commander with whom he had clashed 
on the occasion which happily culminated when 
the "spirits were drank." When the rout began 
Captain Patterson could not find his horse, and as 
he was still suffering from unhealed wounds inflicted 
in another Indian fight, the hasty flight afoot soon 
exhausted him. Just as he gave up all hope young 
Reynolds leaped his horse over intervening ob- 
stacles to his side; dismounted; and, without a by- 
your-leave, bundled the captain into the saddle. 
Before Patterson realized what was going on, he 
was dashing into the river. He was actually the last 
man to cross. Some of the Indians were running 
alongside shooting at him, but he escaped without 
another scratch. 

In the meantime, Reynolds, who was a remarkably 
strong and active young fellow, ran and dodged and 
reached the river safely, but not at the ford. He was 
forced to plunge in and swim across. On the other 
side, after outdistancing his pursuers, he stopped to 
wring out his buckskin trousers. Those of you who 
have worn buckskin will appreciate the necessity for 
that. When wet, buckskin is heavy, clammy, and 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 273 

stretches absurdly, so that the garment which when 
dry is decidedly too small, when wet has enough ma- 
terial in it to furnish out two grown men and a boy. 
Just as he was pulling off the trousers, and so was 
all tangled up, two Indians pounced on him and took 
him prisoner. But Reynolds was not at the end of 
his resources. Watching his chance he knocked 
down one of his captors and escaped. Later he met 
Patterson who, of course, thanked him earnestly; 
at the same time asking rather curiously why he had 
taken such desperate chances for the sake of a man 
with whom he had had nothing but trouble and 
difficulty. He replied that ever since Patterson had 
made him stop swearing he had felt a strong affection 
for him and had completely reformed not only his 
actions but his ways of thinking. To round out the 
story, Patterson then gave him a horse and saddle 
and "a hundred acres of prime land." This was 
the first real property the young man had ever 
owned. It — and his narrow escape — steadied him. 
He settled down, and eventually became a strong and 
devout church member. 

Two days later Logan came up with his four hun- 
dred men. The combined forces returned to the 
battlefield, but there remained nothing to do but 
bury the dead. 

The loss to the backwoodsmen was very heavy. 



274 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

Of the one hundred and eighty-two, seventy were 
killed outright; besides the wounded, and seven men 
captured. Of the latter, four, as was customary, 
were put to torture. One man was spared because 
of his strength, activity, and daring. In running the 
gauntlet he managed by great exertion and speed 
almost to gain the council house, when he darted one 
side, threw one Indian violently to the ground, thrust 
his head between the legs of another and tossed him 
over his back, so gaining the clear. Then, instead of 
running away, he leaped on a stump, knocked his 
heels together, flopped his arms, and crowed like a 
rooster. It tickled the Indians so much that one of 
the older chiefs adopted him on the spot. 

This crushing defeat plunged all the border in 
mourning. Hardly a cabin but had lost one of its 
menfolk. For a time the country lay supine. The 
Indians, satiated with victory, had disappeared into 
the gloom of the northern forests. In the next few 
months small bands of them made frequent raids, 
striking terror, keeping fresh the feeling of disaster. 
Boone and others wrote many times and indignantly 
to the Virginia Legislature complaining of the lack 
of protection and aid. At last George Rogers Clark 
took the matter in hand. He sent out runners in 
all directions summoning all fighting men to gather 
for the purpose of inflicting on the Indians a de- 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 275 

cisive blow. It was the psychological moment. 
Wearied by repeated attack without the chance of 
striking back, the frontier arose eagerly. Every man 
who could pull trigger hastened to the meeting 
place, and with him brought all the cattle, pack- 
horses, and supplies he could obtain. On the 4th of 
November Clark crossed the Ohio at the head of one 
thousand and fifty mounted men; a huge army for 
the backwoods. They captured and burned many 
of the Indian villages; defeated McKee, one of the 
British officers who had led the invading force; 
and, what was of most importance, destroyed great 
quantities of corn and other provisions. 

The blow was a heavy one in itself, but particu- 
larly it disheartened the Indians because they had 
thought the battle of Blue Licks must utterly have 
crushed the white man. This did not look much 
like it. The white man was apparently stronger 
than ever. If such a disaster as the Blue Licks de- 
feat could not check him, then nothing could. The 
Indians were completely discouraged. Although for 
some years longer Kentucky was here and there 
subjected to many raids, never again did the savages 
attack in force or with a serious purpose. 



CHAPTER XXI 

IN THIS period Daniel Boone was still called upon 
to fill a part. He was both sheriff and county 
lieutenant, and his duties led him often far 
afield in pursuit of, or scouting after, small maraud- 
ing bands of Indians. Between times he was often 
required to act as guide or surveyor for men search- 
ing out desirable tracts of land for speculation or 
settlement; or as pilot to one or another of the 
parties of immigrants coming in over the Wilder- 
ness Road; or as hunter to supply wild meat to this 
or the other body of persons; or to furnish armed 
guards of riflemen against Indians. His fame 
spread. It wa^ said that he was almost the best- 
known man in America, and that his renown had even 
extended to Europe. 

Kentucky filled up rapidly. Over twelve thousand 
persons came into the country in 1783 and 1784. Al- 
most over night the life was changing. There were 
more crops; and stores, and market places, and regular 
streets in some of the towns. Lawyers, doctors, 
traders, speculators came in. An export trade of 
Kentucky produce, such as bacon, beef, salt, ginseng, 

276 



Daniel Bvone: Wilderness Scout 9!77 

tobacco, sprang up both across the mountains and 
down the great waterways. 

Boone, when at home, Hved not far from Boones- 
borough on a farm. Among his Indian enemies 
his fame was as great as, or greater than, with the 
whites. Twice he had escaped from them in a 
mortifying fashion, after they had supposed him 
about to join them, and of course his now innumer- 
able exploits in war against them had gained him 
reputation and respect. To capture him would be 
a great feat; and the attempt was frequently made. 
Boone continued to lead a life of danger and escape. 

One such episode he himself tells. It seems that 
among other things Boone raised tobacco. Here is 
the account of the adventure as reported by Peck, 
the man to whom Boone narrated it : 

"As a shelter for curing the tobacco he had built 
an enclosure of rails a dozen feet in height and 
covered with cane and grass. Stalks of tobacco 
are generally split and strung on sticks about four 
feet in length. The ends of these are laid on poles 
placed across the tobacco house, and in tiers, one 
above the other, to the roof. Boone had fixed his 
temporary shelter in such a manner as to have three 
tiers. He had covered the lower tier and the tobacco 
had become dry, when he entered the shelter for the 
purpose of removing the sticks to the upper tier, 



278 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

preparatory to gathering the remainder of the crop. 
He had hoisted up the sticks from the lower to the 
second tier, and was standing on the poles which 
supported it, while raising the sticks to the upper tier, 
when four stout Indians with guns entered the low 
door and called him by name. 

"*Now, Boone, we got you. You no get away 
more. We carry you off to Chillicothe this time. 
You no cheat us any more.' 

"Boone looked down on their upturned faces, 
saw their loaded guns pointed at his breast, and 
recognizing some of his old friends the Shawnees 
who had made him prisoner near Blue Licks in 1778, 
coolly and pleasantly responded: 

" 'Ah, my old friends, glad to see you.' 

"Perceiving that they manifested impatience to 
have him come down, he told them he was quite will- 
ing to go with them, and only begged that they would 
wait where they were, and watch him closely, until 
he could finish removing the tobacco. 

"While thus parleying with them, Boone inquired 
earnestly respecting his old friends in Chillicothe. 
He continued for some time to divert the attention 
of these simple-minded men by allusions to past 
events with which they were familiar, and by talking 
of his tobacco, his mode of curing it, and promising 
them an abundant supply. With their guns in 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 279 

their hands, however, they stood at the door of the 
shed, grouped closely together so as to render his 
escape apparently impossible. In the meantime, 
Boone carefully gathered his arms full of the long, 
dry tobacco leaves, filled with pungent dust, which 
would be as blinding and stifling as the most powerful 
snuff, and then with a leap from his station twelve 
feet high, came directly upon their heads, filling 
their eyes and nostrils and so bewildering and dis- 
abling them for the moment that they lost all self- 
possession and control. 

"Colonel Boone related this adventure with 
great glee, imitating the gestures of the bewildered 
Indians. He said that notwithstanding his narrow 
escape, he could not resist the temptation, as he 
reached the door of his cabin, to look around to 
witness the effect of his achievement. The Indians, 
coughing, sneezing, blinded, and almost suffocated 
by the tobacco dust, were throwing out their arms 
and groping about in all directions, cursing him 
for a rogue and calling themselves fools." 

It is written in the histories that from a thousand 
to fifteen hundred people were killed by Indians 
during these years. The big formal invasions were 
over. The Indians realized that they could not 
hope to drive the white man from the land. Never- 
theless, the lone settler's cabin, the incautious im- 



280 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

migrant train, the inexperienced newcomer from the 
eastern civilizations offered tempting opportunities 
for obtaining coveted scalps. It was an uneasy 
time, full of adventure. We have not space to de- 
tail even a small percentage of the exciting stories that 
have been preserved to us. It was said that reach- 
ing Kentucky by flat boat on the river was like 
running the gauntlet. "For a long time," says 
Abbott, ''it had been unsafe for any individual, or 
even small parties, unless very thoroughly armed, 
to wander beyond the protection of the forts." You 
may be sure the white men were not idle, nor did they 
suffer without attempts at retaliation. Indeed so 
many Indians were captured that Boone called a 
great council at Maysville, the small station near 
which he lived, to discuss an exchange of prisoners. 
This was arranged. As usual, the impression made 
by Boone was so strong that the Indian chiefs vol- 
untarily issued orders to their people that in the 
future, if any people of ISiaysville were captured, 
they were to be treated kindly and with the deepest 
respect. Nor was this an idle bluff. Some time 
after someone from Maysville ivas captured, and did 
receive the most extraordinary good treatment. 

But now Boone was to receive an unmerited blow, 
a blow that not only hit at his material prosperity, 
but which hurt his feelings, embittered him against 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 281 

civilization, and almost embittered him against his 
fellowman. Almost, I say; for the gentle, friendly 
character of the old pioneer was proof against even 
the shock of essential injustice and ingratitude. 
However he might resent and despise the institu- 
tions of men, he seems never to have lost his kindly 
feeling for men themselves. 

With the influx of new settlers had come stable 
government and the formal laws and regulations 
that belong with it. Among these were of course 
laws as to the ownership of land. Certain formal- 
ities had to be complied with, as was quite just 
and proper; but these formalities were often so 
framed as to favour land sharps and speculators, 
which was not right and proper at all. One morn- 
ing the sheriff knocked at Boone's door. To his 
hurt astonishment he found that his title to his own 
home had been questioned in the courts. Some 
technicality he had not fulfilled of the many made 
necessary by the legislation of men who had lately 
come to the country. 

The old pioneer was astounded. That he who had 
opened this vast area to white settlement, millions 
of acres of it, should be questioned in the ownership 
of the few he had selected for his own use, seemed to 
him incredibly unjust. And it was unjust. There 
is no doubt that technically he did not possess clear 



282 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

title : there is also no doubt that morally he had the 
clearest title possible. The unscrupulous skunks 
in human form who saw their chance to put in a 
legally sound claim in opposition, who could con- 
template for a moment ousting a man of Boone's 
character and history; the lawyers who prosecuted 
the case; the rigid-minded judges who could see 
no possible course of action other than that laid 
down; the legislature that did not, if necessary, 
pass especial laws assuring his ownership; the supine 
public opinion that did not rise in indignation over 
such an outrage, are almost equally to blame. That 
sort of legal argument to excuse injustice can com- 
mand the patience of no sensible man. Shortly, 
after a series of lawsuits, the old woodsman found 
himself without a single acre in the land he had dis- 
covered and subdued! 

"My footsteps have often been marked with 
blood," said he. "Two darling sons and a brother 
have I lost by savage hands, which have also taken 
from me forty valuable horses and an abundance of 
cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights have I been 
a companion for owls, separated from the cheerful 
society of men, scorched by the summer's sun and 
pinched by the winter's cold, an instrument ordained 
to settle the wilderness." 

From the depths of his indignation and hurt feel- 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 283 

ings Boone addressed a memorial to the Kentucky 
Legislature. In this he stated simply that until 
Indian troubles had ceased he had not attempted to 
settle down to farming, but had fought his country's 
fight; that then he had built his house and cleared his 
fields on land to which he supposed he had a perfect 
title. He ran over very briefly and modestly the 
sacrifices he had made in exploring, settling, and 
finally defending Kentucky. He complained of the 
injustice of acting under a complicated set of laws 
adopted long after his actual occupancy of the land. 
He asked for redress. 

The plea remained unanswered. The men who 
were so unscrupulous as to "buy in" or locate the 
lands claimed by Boone were served by lawyers as 
sharp. They gained possession. Without doubt 
to-day their descendants talk proudly of their 
pioneer ancestors. Their names are on the records 
of the times. Suits of ejectment succeeded each 
other, one by one, until at the last Boone was left 
landless and almost penniless. Heartbroken, he 
packed his few belongings on his horses, and de- 
parted, abandoning his beloved Kentucky, vowing 
never again to dwell within her boundaries. 

He headed for Point Pleasant, at the junction of 
the Great Kanawha and the Ohio rivers. Here, 
you will remember, was fought the great battle in 



£84 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

the old days when the chief Cornstalk had led his 
men against the woodsmen under Lewis. Boone 
arrived here in 1788. For a time he kept a small 
store; and a little later we find him engaged in a 
great variety of occupations, guiding immigrants, 
surveying, supplying wild meat to the militia, 
and in just hunting. He was often far afield. Some- 
times he even ventured north of the Ohio, where he 
had many narrow escapes from capture or death. 
The crack of his famous rifle was still dreaded by 
his old enemies. We hear of him at many widely 
separated places : visiting kinsfolk at the old Pennsyl- 
vania home, whither he and his wife and a son trav- 
elled on horseback; back at Maysville to settle some 
business; on the Monongahela River selling horses; 
at various points delivering ammunition and sup- 
plies to the militia in the field against the torment- 
ing Indians. After Wayne's final crushing victory 
against the latter Boone for several seasons did al- 
most nothing but hunt and trap. He gained par- 
ticular renown for his success at beaver trapping. 
The game he killed he shared freely with the con- 
stantly increasing numbers of neighbours; the pel- 
tries he shipped to market. 

For some years the valley of the Kanawha made 
him a good home. He was there greatly respected, 
which was balm to his bruised feelings. By popular 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 285 

petition he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of 
Kanawha County, and in many other ways the 
people accorded him marked distinction. Travellers 
journeyed long distances to see this man, distin- 
guished throughout the western world, but never- 
theless made homeless by his own state. One of these 
travellers has left an impression : 

"His large head, full chest, square shoulders, and 
stout form are still impressed upon my mind. 
He was (I think) above five feet ten inches in height, 
and his weight say 175. He was solid in mind as well 
as in body, never frivolous, thoughtless, or agitated; 
but was always quiet, meditative, and impressive, 
unpretentious, kind and friendly in his manner. 
He came very much up to the idea we have of the old 
Grecian philosophers — particularly Diogenes." 

Says another writer: 

"I have often seen him get up early in the morning, 
walk hastily out, and look anxiously to the woods 
and snuff the autumnal winds with the highest 
rapture: and then return to the house and cast a 
quick and attentive look at the rifle, which was al- 
ways suspended to a joist by a couple of buck horns 
or little forks. The hunting dog understanding the 
intentions of his master would wag his tail, and by 
every blandishment in his power express his readiness 
to accompany him to the woods." 



286 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

However, in time the settlers began to be too 
numerous. The game was driven back. But es- 
pecially the new type displeased Boone's placid and 
benevolent nature; the intense, nervous energy, the 
greed of some of them, the stinginess of others dis- 
turbed his hospitable soul. 

One day two or three hunters came by Boone's 
cabin, and were, as a matter of course, made welcome. 
They stayed with him some time, hunting with him 
daytimes and sitting with him around the blazing 
jBre in the evenings. They related to him adven- 
tures in far-off lands beyond the Mississippi; lands 
where the game roamed in vast herds, as in the 
Kentucky of yore; lands which the white man had 
seldom trod, and which the red man claimed by the 
strength of his good right arm; another Kentucky, 
unspoiled by the greeds of civilization. The old 
man's youth revived within him; his imagination 
was rekindled. At the age of sixty-five he resolved 
once more to set forth into the wilderness. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE occasion of the setting forth from the 
Kanawha of Boone, his wife, and younger 
children must have warmed the old pioneer's 
heart. From far and near came the backwoodsmen 
and their families, by horseback, in canoe, on foot, 
until at Point Pleasant was an immense gathering 
to bid him farewell. It must have been a very 
touching occasion; for, as one writer expresses it, 
they *'bade him farewell as solemnly affectionate as 
though he were departing for another world." 

They set off in boats with all their household 
goods and as many of their domestic cattle as they 
could find room for. The journey was made by the 
waterways of the Ohio and JVIississippi rivers, and 
was a leisurely affair. At all the little towns and 
stations they stopped to see friends or receive the 
heartfelt homage of the people, for Boone now 
found that, however officialdom might hurt him, 
the people loved and respected him. It was like 
a triumphal progress. After the settlements had 
been left behind nothing noteworthy happened, 

287 



288 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

until at length the little flotilla landed on the Mis- 
souri banks of the Father of Waters. 

All this part of the West was at that time under 
Spanish rule. Boone found the news of his coming 
had preceded him, and that even in advance of his 
arrival the Spanish governor had granted him a 
thousand acres of fine bottomland on the Femme 
Osage Creek, adjoining land belonging to his son. 
Greatly soothed by this appreciation Boone here, 
with his own hands, built him a log cabin, and for 
the fourth time settled down as a pioneer. 

The country was much to his liking. The in- 
habitants were scattered; game was abundant; the 
soil was rich; there were almost no taxes; and the 
only semblance of government was that vested in a 
single ofiicial called the syndic, who was a sort of 
combined judge, jury, military commander, and 
sheriff. To the west stretched the vast unknown 
plains full of Indians, wild animals, and wilder ad- 
venture. Boone resumed his old life with zest. 

In this new country, too, the stability and solid 
worth of his character made themselves felt. By 1800 
we see him appointed syndic for the whole district, 
truly a signal honour in a country ruled by the 
Spanish. So well did he perform all the duties of 
this composite office that when, by the Louisiana 
purchase, the United States took over the country. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 289 

the French governor — you remember, possibly, 
that the country passed briefly from Spain through 
French hands — ^testified to President Jefferson's 
commissioner that, "Mr. Boone, a respectable old 
man, is just and impartial. He has already, since 
I appointed him, offered his resignation owing to his 
infirmities, but believing I know his probity, I have 
induced him to remain, in view of my confidence in 
him, for the public good." 

Boone knew nothing whatever about law, and his 
experience in Kentucky had not endeared it to him. 
In his court he had scant patience with technicalities 
and forms. But his sense of fairness and justice 
was keen, and his decisions, says Thwaites, "based 
solely on common-sense in the rough, were respected 
as if coming from the supreme bench." The same 
writer says: "His methods were as primitive and 
arbitrary as those of an oriental pasha; his pen- 
alties frequently consisted of lashes on the bare back 
Veil laid on'; he would observe no rules of evidence, 
saying he wished only to know the truth; and some- 
times both parties to a suit were compelled to divide 
the costs and begone. During his four years of 
office he passed on the disputes of his neighbours 
with such absolute fairness as to win popular ap- 
probation." Another of the duties of his office, 
which the old man greatly relished, was showing 



290 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

immigrants to desirable tracts of land. No one 
could have been better fitted for that. His hunting 
expeditions taught him the country; his keen prac- 
tised eye was always on the alert for fertile soil and 
favourable location. In addition, his contempo- 
raries all say, the duty possessed in Boone's eyes a 
quality of hospitality that vastly appealed to him. 
He was showing his guests around. The universal 
testimony from those who have left personal testi- 
mony is that at this task Boone was at his best, 
displaying a charming simple dignity that quieted 
the roughest men and captured the affections of all 
with whom he came in contact. 

In the interims between official duties he was as 
active as ever in the field, despite his advancing 
years. His eyesight was failing somewhat, so that 
he complains that the old unerring marksmanship 
was no longer quite at his command. Nevertheless, 
he could still outshoot most of his neighbours, and 
his skill as a trapper of fur was unexcelled. Chiefly 
he sought beaver skins, which he could then sell in 
St. Louis for nine dollars each. He has himself 
said that, with the exception of his first years in the 
new Kentucky, this was the happiest period of his 
life. 

Many travellers made it a point to visit the 
famous scout, and a number have left their im- 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 291 

pressions of him. Even after the age of seventy he 
was evidently a vigorous man. Audubon the nat- 
uraHst says: "The stature and general appearance 
of this wanderer of the western parts approached 
the gigantic. His chest was broad and prominent, 
his muscular powers displayed themselves in every 
limb; his countenance gave indication of his great 
courage, enterprise, and persistence; and when he 
spoke the very motion of his lips brought the im- 
pression that whatever he uttered could not be other- 
wise than strictly true." Even at this period, when 
Boone was lamenting the waning of his marks- 
manship, Audubon testifies: "We had returned 
from a shooting excursion, in the course of which his 
extraordinary skill in the management of the rifle 
had been fully displayed." 

But this ideal existence was not long to continue. 
In 1804 the United States took over by purchase the 
whole of this country. Naturally Boone's author- 
ity as a Spanish magistrate ended with that fact. 
This was not serious, but what followed was. The 
grants of land made to Boone by the Spanish gov- 
ernor were shortly found to be faulty. The old 
man should have journeyed to New Orleans in per- 
son to fulfil certain red-tape obligations. The 
journey required would have been a thousand 
miles by waterway between banks swarming with 



292 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

Indians; and a return by land — the current was 
too fast for a return by water — through the same 
foes. The local Spanish governor assured Boone 
that he, as syndic, need not fulfil this law; and the 
old man, believing his informant, never made the 
journey. We are informed that the land com- 
missioners, "while highly respecting him, were re- 
gretfully obliged " to deprive him of his land. Again 
Boone found himself made landless by his own 
country. On the advice of friends he sent in mem- 
orials to both the Kentucky Legislature and Con- 
gress, but only six years later did Congress at length 
take action to confirm his Spanish grant. 

In the meantime, the old scout, unembittered by 
the essential injustice of this calamity, took up 
with renewed vigour the life of a fur trapper. He 
made long trips into the wilderness, into hostile 
country, almost alone. They would have been 
extraordinary trips for any man, but when we con- 
sider Boone's advanced age, we cannot but wonder. 
At the age of eighty, for example, we hear of him in 
the Yellowstone ! Sometimes one of his sons accom- 
panied him, but most often his only companion was 
an old Indian. 

In those days the fur trade was a very paying 
business. Indeed, it was about at this period that 
the great companies were solidifying their immense 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 293 

influence, and such fortunes as that of John Jacob 
Astor were made. Trappers were either "Com- 
pany men," or "free trappers." The former were 
paid regular salaries and of course turned over to 
their employers all their skins; the latter were 
supplied with traps and ammunition and turned 
loose to wander at their own wills, it being under- 
stood that they sell their catch to the company 
that had supplied them, at a price agreed upon be- 
forehand. The outfit consisted generally of two or 
three horses, one for riding and the others for pack- 
ing the simple camp outfits and the furs. It was 
of course very desirable to find, if possible, regions 
un visited by either white man or Indian; and in 
consequence long and solitary journeys were the rule. 

Your trapper was in those days a highly con- 
sidered individual. He led a bold, free life, and his 
adventures struck hard at the imagination. He 
thought rather well of himself and of his calling; 
and he dressed the part. His buckskin clothes, 
fragrant with the smoke tan, were fringed and em- 
broidered heavily with porcupine quills stained in 
bright colours. His moccasins especially were often 
real works of art. Customarily, he wore a flexible 
felt hat, as successor to the old coon-skin cap usual 
in the more wooded countries. 

Early in the spring, just as soon as the ice had 



294 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

melted in the mountain streams, he arrived at his 
trapping grounds. Carefully he followed up the 
beds of the watercourses, watching on either bank 
for signs of any of the valuable fur-bearing animals. 
Every down tree he examined to see if by chance a 
beaver might have cut it down; and if such proved 
to be the case, whether the animal had felled it for 
food or as material for a dam. Every beaver track 
he followed to determine whether it might not lead 
to a runway where he could set his trap. When 
he came to a beaver house, he set his trap at the 
edge of the dam just where the beaver, coming out 
from deep water, first set his foot into shoal. Once 
the traps were all set the busy routine life began. 
The "circle" of traps often involved a journey of 
many miles. On his return from this circle, our 
trapper had next to skin his catch, stretch the skins 
over hoops of willow, and then painstakingly to 
scrape and pare them free from flesh and fat. His 
food during the trapping season was "jerked" meat 
and what provisions he had brought with him. All 
the meat for his use he had killed and dried before 
coming on the trapping grounds; for, if he could 
avoid it. the sound of a rifle must not be heard in 
the fur country. Beaver tails, however, which were 
considered a great dainty, gave him the variety of 
fresh meat. 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 295 

A book called "Buxton's Travels" gives an inter- 
esting picture of this life : 

"During the hunt, regardless of Indian vicinity, 
the fearless trapper wanders far and near in search 
of *sign.' His nerves must ever be in a state of 
tension and his mind ever present at his call. His 
eagle eye sweeps around the country, and in an 
instant detects any foreign appearance. A turned 
leaf, a blade of grass pressed down, the uneasiness of 
wild animals, the flight of birds, are all paragraphs 
to him written in Nature's legible hand and plainest 
language. All the wits of the subtle savage are 
called into play to gain an advantage over the wily 
woodsman; but with the instinct of the primitive 
man, the white hunter has the advantage of a civi- 
lized mind, and thus provided seldom fails to outwit, 
under equal advantages, the cunning savage. 

"Sometimes the Indian following on his trail 
watches him set his traps on a shrub-belted stream, 
and passing up the bed, like Bruce of old, so that 
he may leave no track, he lies in wait in the bushes 
until the hunter comes to examine. Then waiting 
until he approaches his ambush within a few feet, 
whiz flies the home-drawn arrow, never failing at 
such close quarters to bring the victim to the ground. 
For one white scalp, however, that dangles in the 
smoke of an Indian lodge a dozen black ones at the 



296 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

end of the hunt ornament the campfire of the rendez- 
vous. 

"At a certain time when the hunt is over, or they 
have loaded their pack animals, the trappers proceed 
to their rendezvous, the locality of which has been 
previously agreed upon; and here the traders and 
agents of the fur companies await them, with such 
assortments of goods as their hardy customers may 
require, including generally a fair supply of alcohol. 
The trappers drop in singly and in small bands, bring- 
ing their packs of beaver to this mountain market, 
not unfrequently to the value of a thousand dollars 
each, the produce of one hunt. The dissipation of 
the rendezvous, however, soon turns the trapper's 
pocket inside out. The goods brought by the 
traders, although of the most inferior quality, are 
sold at enormous prices. Coffee twenty and thirty 
shillings a pint cup, which is the usual measure; 
tobacco fetches ten and fifteen shillings a plug; 
alcohol from twenty to fifty shillings a pint; gun- 
powder sixteen shillings a pint cup, and all other 
articles at proportionately exorbitant prices. 

"The rendezvous is one continued scene of drunk- 
enness, gambling, brawling and fighting, so long as 
the money and credit of the trappers last. Seated 
Indian fashion around the fires, with a blanket spread 
before them, groups are seen with their 'decks' of 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 297 

cards playing at 'euchre,' *poker,' and 'seven-up/ 
the regular mountain games. The stakes are beaver, 
which is here current coin; and when the fur is gone, 
their horses, mules, rifles and shirts, hunting packs 
and breeches are staked. Daring gamblers make 
the rounds of the camp, challenging each other to 
play for the highest stake — his horse, his squaw if 
he have one, and as once happened his scalp. A 
trapper often squanders the produce of his hunt, 
amounting to hundreds of dollars, in a couple of 
hours, and, supplied on credit with another equip- 
ment, leaves the rendezvous for another expedition 
which has the same result, time after time, although 
one tolerably successful hunt would enable him to 
return to the settlements and civilized life with an 
ample sum to purchase and stock a farm, and enjoy 
himself in ease and comfort for the remainder of his 
days. 

"These annual gatherings are often the scene of 
bloody duels, for over their cups and cards no 
men are more quarrelsome than your mountaineers. 
Rifles at twenty paces settle all differences, and as 
may be imagined, the fall of one or the other of the 
combatants is certain, or, as sometimes happens, 
both fall at the same fire." 

This life Daniel Boone lived, all but the carousals 
and squanderings at the rendezvous. He saved his 



298 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

makings and brought them home. He was now 
getting to be an old man; in spite of the robustness 
of his constitution these long and perilous journeys 
were beginning to tell on him. On one occasion 
he was taken so dangerously sick that it seemed to 
him he must certainly die. For a long time he 
lay in camp unable to move, while a storm raged. 
Finally a pleasant day came when he felt able to 
walk. Leaning heavily on a stick he struggled to the 
top of a small hill and there, with the point of his 
staff, he marked out his grave. Then he proceeded 
to give his companion, who this time happened to 
be merely a negro boy of twelve years, the most 
careful instructions. He told him, in case the illness 
proved fatal, to "wash and lay his body straight, 
wrapped up in one of the cleanest blankets. He was 
then to construct a kind of shovel, and with that 
instrument and the hatchet to dig a grave exactly as 
he had marked it out. He was then to drag the body 
to the place and put it in the grave, which he was 
directed to cover up, putting posts at head and foot. 
Poles were to be placed around and above the sur- 
face, the trees to be marked so the place could be 
easily found by his friends; the horses were to be 
caught, the blankets and skins gathered up, with 
especial instructions about the old rifle, and various 
messages to his family. All these directions were 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 299 

given, as the boy afterwards declared, with entire 
calmness, and as if he were giving instructions about 
ordinary business." Fortunately he recovered: but 
he broke camp and returned home without attempt- 
ing to continue the hunting. 

Another incident Abbott quotes from some un- 
named writer as follows: 

"One writer says Colonel Boone went on a trap- 
ping excursion up the Grand River. This stream 
rises in the southern part of Iowa, and flows in a 
southerly course into the Missouri. He was entirely 
alone. Paddling his canoe up the lonely banks of 
the Missouri, he entered the Grand River, and es- 
tablished his camp in a silent sheltered cove, where 
an experienced hunter would with difficulty find it. 

"Here he first laid in his supply of venison, turkeys, 
and bear's meat, and then commenced his trapping 
operation, where no sound of his rifle would disturb 
the beavers and no smell of gunpowder would excite 
their alarm. Every morning he took the circuit 
of his traps, visiting them all in turn. Much to his 
alarm, he one morning encountered a large encamp- 
ment of Indians in his vicinity engaged in hunting. 
He immediately retreated to his camp and secreted 
himself. Fortunately for him, quite a deep snow 
fell that night, which covered his traps. But this 
same snow prevented him from leaving his camp, 



300 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

lest his footprints should be discovered. For twenty 
days he continued thus secreted, occasionally, at mid- 
night, venturing to cook a little food, when there 
was no danger that the smoke of his fire would reveal 
his retreat. At length the enemy departed, and 
he was released from his long imprisonment. He 
subsequently stated that never in his life had he 
felt so much anxiety for so long a period lest the 
Indians should discover his traps and search out his 
camp." 

In vain his family tried to keep him at least some- 
where near home. Their appeals made no impression 
on the old man. At length they did manage to per- 
suade him never to go anywhere without the Indian 
before mentioned. The latter was solemnly in- 
structed to bring the Colonel back "dead or ahve." 

It was only in 1810 that the reason for the old 
gentleman's persistence became clear. Again he 
set forth on a long and perilous journey, but this 
time with his face to the east. Once more he stood 
within the borders of Kentucky. 

It seems that the land -grabbing sharks and petti- 
fogging lawyers had not only cleaned him out of 
land but the defense of the lawsuits had left him in 
debt. Those who stood his creditors had never by 
word or deed reminded him of that fact, nor was it 
known except to them and to Boone. Such was the 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 301 

esteem in which he was held that no one, as far as 
could be learned, had the slightest notion of ever 
pressing the matter. But that did not help Boone's 
standing with himself. By the most incredible ex- 
ertions, in his old age, he had managed to get the 
money; and now he journeyed from place to place, 
saw every creditor, and paid in full. Then he trav- 
elled back to his family, satisfied. This excursion 
left him of all his wealth just one fifty -cent piece! 
But Boone was exultant. 

"Now," he cried, "I am ready and willing to die! 
I am relieved from a burden which has long op- 
pressed me. I have paid all my debts, and no one 
can say when I am gone, *Boone was a dishonest 
man/ I am perfectly content now to die." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE War of 1812 was fought. Boone chafed 
Hke a young man over the refusal of the 
authorities to permit him to enhst! He was 
then seventy -eight years old. His impatience rose 
to a very high pitch when the uneasiness of the war 
farther east brought on Indian troubles nearer at 
home. Some of the farm property of the younger 
members of the Boone family was destroyed in one 
of these raids, and Boone's sons, Daniel Morgan and 
Nathan, were leaders of the troops sent out in re- 
prisal. A year later Boone's wife died, a great grief, 
as she had been since early youth his heroic com- 
panion. 

Mrs. Boone's death, combined with his penniless 
condition, induced the old Scout to abandon his 
separate establishment and to join the household of 
his son, Nathan. The latter seems to have been a 
worthy descendant of the old stock. He was first a 
hunter and explorer, then a very successful farmer on 
what was then a large scale. In the British War of 
1812 he served with great distinction. The mihtary 
life seems to have suited him well, for at the close of 

302 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 303 

the war he remained in the regular army where he 
soon gained the rank of Heutenant-colonel. Most 
of his campaigning was among the Indians com- 
paratively near home, and in this fighting he had 
many thrilling adventures. The farmhouse he built 
was of stone, two storied, on substantial Colonial 
lines, and of truly mansion size and architecture. 
Here the old Scout took up his quarters, still chafing 
at the thought that he had no part in the war. 

Immediately at its cessation, however, he started 
off on a hunting trip, "just to show them." He 
was heard of at Fort Osage on his way to the Platte 
"in the dress of the roughest, poorest hunter." 
When winter shut down he reluctantly returned. 
There were too many immigrants coming in to suit 
Boone's taste: they were slowly filling up the land 
and driving the game back. Also there was too 
much law court, politics, land grabs, and speculation. 
In spite of his now great age Boone seriously talked 
of moving again still farther west to make a fresh 
start! He was talked out of this by his sons and 
neighbours; but he insisted on fixing up part of an 
old log blockhouse as quarters to which he could at 
least temporarily escape. His life was still active. 
In the summer he kept busy working on the farms 
of his children or chopping down trees for the win- 
ter's firewood. In the evenings nothing delighted 



304 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

him more than to gather at his fireside a group of men 
who could tell him of things "hid beyond the ranges." 
He was intensely interested in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, then on the edge of exploration, and eagerly 
questioned everybody who could give him the least 
knowledge of California. Indeed it is said that his 
fresh enthusiasm was the cause of several young 
men's migrating to the Pacific Coast. "A tale of 
new lands ever found in him a delighted listener." 

But more often those who sat around the fire them- 
selves played the part of listeners while the old 
Scout sought in his recollections for amusing or thrill- 
ing tales. The Boone farm was visited by many 
people who came for the sole purpose of seeing the 
celebrated frontiersman. Among them were many 
men of distinction. Boone received them all with his 
fine simplicity, but it is pleasant to think that this 
attention from men, themselves of celebrity, must 
have pleased him. One of these visitors leaves this 
impression of him, by which it can be seen that age 
was still sitting lightly on his head. 

"He was of a very erect, clean-limbed, and athletic 
form — admirably fitted in structure, muscle, tem- 
perament, and habit for the labours, changes, and 
sufferings he underwent. He had what phrenologists 
would have considered a model head — with a fore- 
head peculiarly high, noble, and bold — thin and 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 305 

compressed lips — a mild, clear blue eye — a large and 
prominent chin, and a general expression of counte- 
nance in which fearlessness and courage sat en- 
throned." 

Another says: 

"He was of very mild countenance, fair complex- 
ion, soft and quiet in his manner, but little to say 
unless spoken to, amiable and kind in his feelings, 
very fond of quiet retirement, of cool self possession, 
and indomitable perseverance." 

Mind you this last was written of him when he was 
eighty -four years old. The following year, when he 
was eighty-five, Chester Harding writes that he 
found him "living alone in a cabin, a part of an old 
blockhouse," roasting a venison steak on the end of 
his ramrod. Harding speaks with great admiration 
of the accuracy of his memory and the vividness yet 
modesty of his narratives. 

"I asked him," writes Harding, "if he never got 
lost in his long wanderings after game. He said, 
'No, I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for 
three days.''' 

But when the haze of autumn spread over the land 
and the smell of wood smoke filled the air, Boone al- 
ways got restless. With his Indian companion he 
would disappear for weeks at a time. At the age of 
eighty -four he wrote one of his sons: "I intend by 



306 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

next summer to take two or three whites and a party 
of Osage Indians to visit the salt mountains, lakes, and 
ponds and see these natural curiosities. They are 
about five or six hundred miles west of here." 

But it is very doubtful if this expedition ever came 
off. Boone's eyesight was now so bad that he had 
to attach pieces of white paper to his rifle sights; but 
his nerves were unpalsied, and what he could see he 
could still hit. Doubtless the venison Harding found 
him roasting on the end of the ramrod was of his own 
killing. He was content. A contemporary says 
that "at this period of his life an irritable expression 
never escaped his lips." 

Says another: 

"His personal appearance was venerable and 
attractive, very neatly clad in garments spun, woven, 
and made in the cabins. His countenance was 
pleasant, calm, and fair, his forehead high and bold, 
and the soft silver of his hair in unison with his 
length of days. He spoke, feelingly and with solem- 
nity, of being a creature of Providence, ordained by 
Heaven as a pioneer in the wilderness to advance 
the civilization and the extension of his country. 
He professed the belief that the Almighty had as- 
signed to him a work to perform, and that he had 
only followed the pathway of duty in the work 
he had pursued; that he had discharged his duty to 



Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 307 

God and his country by following the direction of 
Providence." 

His children and grandchildren adored him, and 
surrounded him with affectionate attentions. Then, 
too, he was much cheered by the fact that at last 
Congress, after years of delay, had voted to confirm 
his Spanish grant of land. It was now too late to do 
the old man any good; but it comforted him greatly 
to feel that he had something substantial to leave his 
children. Not that they needed it: but it was a 
matter that touched the old gentleman's pride. 

No longer was he able to do the heavy work of the 
farm, nor go far afield in his hunting expeditions; 
but still his active nature was as busy as ever, 
though in a different way. He was an expert at 
repairing rifles, for instance, and could make and 
carve the most beautiful powder horns; or could 
manufacture moccasins, hunting shirts, or snow- 
shoes. These things he did for his neighbours out 
of the generosity of his heart. Except for the par- 
tial dimming of his eyesight, his health and vigour 
remained good to the last. He died at his son Nath- 
an's house when eighty-six years of age after only 
three days of illness. 

Drawing a moral is a priggish thing to do. Such 
a life speaks for itself. Yet one cannot help asking 



308 Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout 

oneself why Boone's fame stands out so predomi- 
nantly above the other forest men of his time. 
George Rogers Clark, for example, with his bold, 
picturesque, and successful campaigns would seem 
to have performed greater military service to the 
struggling settlements; Simon Kenton had as thrill- 
ing adventures. The answer is, in character. The 
picture that persists at the last is not the smoke and 
dust of battle and combat, but the figure of a serene, 
unworldly, kindly soul, fronting what fate brought 
him, whether of peace or of turmoil, with spirit un- 
ruffled and unafraid. 



THE END 



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